Panaji: Forty-three-year-old Bhakti, who has had albinism and is partially blind since birth, lives in Raia, 3.5 hours away by bus from her home in distant Pernem. But she isn’t complaining. In fact, for the first time in her life, she has found meaningful work at Avo Betty’s Cafe.The cafe in Raia is almost entirely run by a 10-member team who are blind, with only two having other disabilities. It is the first and only such cafe in Goa.After doing odd jobs all her life, like washing utensils at a restaurant, Bhakti has found purpose working as a chef at the cafe, with others who have faced the same challenges as her in life.The cafe, which began operations last month, is run by Raia Empowerment Foundation, from a heritage house constructed in 1908 by Jose Francisco Xavier Vaz. His granddaughter Judith was struck by the idea of a cafe run by blind individuals after her husband Peter Noronha, struggling with vision loss starting from Oct 1996, found himself left with barely 1%-5% of sight by 2025.Family and friends came together to form the foundation and realise Judith and Peter’s dream.“While there are a number of places where persons with blindness are trained, few places provide them employment. Even if someone provides employment, their role is reduced to helping the mainline workers. Each of our 10 team members never worked as chefs and we got them trained under master chef Sebastian Breitinger on an entirely pro bono basis and chef Sandip Madkaikar, who was engaged on a short-term contract basis,” said one of the foundation committee members, Sandra Souza Menon.The entire cafe and kitchen space had to be designed to make it a safe and navigable space for the staffers. The committee members contacted the National Association for Blind and got in touch with several blind people, ultimately forming a team of the most driven to make the cafe’s vision a success.But there was another challenge.“Most of them lived in different parts of Goa, far away from the cafe location. So we had to take up a house next door and turn it into accommodation for them. Now most reside there through the week and visit home when the cafe is shut on Mondays. It helps us also take care of other things, like getting their health issues treated. Many of them have issues like diabetes, which went untreated for long periods. We are helping them make lifestyle changes to address these health issues,” said another foundation committee member, Rajive Saharia.For now, the cafe has been operationalised based on donations from family and friends, but the foundation is hoping for patronage, helping the business break even. This will mean that the business can expand, with the vision of ultimately employing at least 30 blind people and some with other disabilities as well.“I have been partially blind since birth. Even when attending higher secondary school, I was able to ride a bike and live a largely normal life as I still had 50% vision. By 2025, my vision dropped drastically. I was working with one bakery in Khorlim in Mapusa near my home, but after that life got difficult for me. I went through seven surgeries and nothing seemed to help. Here, I am working independently for the first time and it has been good so far,” said an employee, Chandrakant.Judith, who lives with Peter in Dubai, while fulfilling the vision of the foundation through its committee members, has revived her mother’s recipes for the cafe, named Avo Betty’s after her.The foundation is guided by a committee comprising Saharia, Sousa Menon, Judith Vaz Noronha, Melwin Chico and Debra Proença, who collectively steer its vision and operations.“We currently operate from 9am to 6pm and want to expand to serving during dinner-time hours. We want to expand to catering events, parties and supplying food to office staff canteens. It will help us employ 30 individuals in all. The premises has sufficient space for expansion,” said Saharia.
