Café Ujala powers through stigma against people with disabilities at Karachi Eat 2020

KARACHI: The 'Oreo Cookie Shots' had sold out like hotcakes by as early as 6pm — a 100 of them in barely the two hours since the metropolis’ biggest food festival, Karachi Eat 2020, opened its doors on its first day — and it’d take another 30 minutes or so to replenish the stock but we met the sweetest and very passionate people who were preparing and serving mouthwatering food at Cafe Ujala.

With a purpose to “spread the message of tolerance and awareness about special children” and their inclusion in the Pakistan society, Ujala, the school, was born thirty years ago, set up by the Parents Voice Association, which is based out of Karachi’s posh Defence Housing Authority (DHA) neighbourhood.

Then, three years ago, Pakistan’s first café run by specially-abled students started appearing at various events, including Pursukoon Karachi Festival, Karachi Eat, and Karachi Down Syndrome Program (KDSP) Carnival, urging people not to “discriminate anyone just because they are different than us” and handing out platefuls of delicious food with sides of love and acceptance.

Speaking to Geo.tv, Nabeel, an A-Level student and volunteer, said the experience over the past two years was so great that the cafe has returned to Karachi Eat for a third consecutive year. “It was so good that it needed a sequel,” he said. “In the first few hours, we’ve had such an amazing response, we have sent for more Oreo Cookie Shots” — their speciality this year.

Also read: The quick and easy guide for Karachi Eat 2020

With warm chocolate milk inside and given the unforgiving wintry breeze this year, it is definitely a blessing for Karachiites bundled up in shawls, jackets, and mufflers.

However, it has not been all rainbows and unicorns for them either. People “say they’re ‘mad’ and ask ‘how are they working here?’ or ‘what good are they going to do for the world?” when they see the special children, Nabeel said. However, he added that “we just want to show them that these people, these special students, they can do everything. If we only just believe, bring tolerance, work with that, and teach them, they can do any and everything!

“We should accept them and that’s what we aim to do here at Cafe Ujala,” he added.

Nabeel told Geo.tv that the Ujala school and vocational training centre has numerous programmes for special children that include speech, vocal, and physical therapy. “We take cases of students who are intellectually disabled or have Down Syndrome or autism,” he said.

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“It’s a wide, rich spectrum. […] We have volunteers from schools, students of A- and O-Levels [who] go and we help out there during the summers during the winters.”

The volunteers at Ujala teach about people with various disabilities and their skills and abilities to help encourage acceptance and understanding. “We just have to take one step forward and they’d take five steps towards us,” Nabeel noted.

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“To spread any message, you first have to instill it in yourself and all of us here at Ujala believe that there’s nothing less in them [special children] and we have so much confidence that spreads to others,” he added.

Now, in 2020, Ujala has a new goal: to open another school in DHA Phase 8, where, according to the volunteer, there would be a boarding school to facilitate hundreds of students.

Nabeel mentioned that the cafe hopes to achieve this by raising funds and awareness through events like Karachi Eat 2020.And we don’t doubt it one bit as they also have mint lemonade, the ‘Party on Hawkes Bay’, and s’mores apart from the 'Oreo Cookie Shots.’

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