Recently, Angel Cafe on Nguyen Duc Trung Street, Thanh Khe Dong Ward, Thanh Khe District has made an impression on customers via its staff’s enthusiasm and politeness. However, it is hard to realize among this café’s waiters and waitresses are young people who are deaf or dumb if customers don't pay close attention.

Angel Café’s employees are mostly deaf and mute. Photo: XUAN SON

Their beloved second family

Working inside the second-floor space of the café, the thin, friendly and polite young man L.D.D.K, residing in Son Tra District, quickly serves customers, recommends delicious beverages by using hand sign language and always bowing to greet them in the great manner of a waiter. He is the only disabled in his family so he is sometimes shy; however, being able to work to earn a living helps him to be more confident.

In the same vein, the 27-year-old man L.P.T being not able to listen and speak like normal people is serving on the first floor of the shop. He shared that in the past he was mostly at home due to his shortcomings. However, as soon as working at Angel, he has received harmony and sharing from the manager to colleagues sharing the same shortcomings as himself. After the initial bewilderment, he found joy in this place and considered it his second home.

According to Mr Tran Dinh Tam, the owner of Angel coffee shop, 15 employees born with congenital deaf or dumb, being facilitated to work at his shop, are mainly from neighbouring Quang Nam and Da Nang. They are in charge of serving drinks to guests at the table and helping them to order drinks.

Guests to the cafe are served by dedicated staff. Photo: XUAN SON

Help the disabilities integrate into the community.

As shared by Mr Tam, during days of participating in volunteer activities, he has come into contact with many people with disabilities and found that most of them often worked from home. Hence, he intended to build a business model to help them have stable jobs and integrate well into the social community. This meaningful idea finally come into reality in the middle of October 2021, after 2 years of postponing due to the influence of the pandemic.

“The coffee shop model run successfully by many people opens more chances for the disabled to work in an open space, to communicate, and interact with the outside world more than before so that they no longer have self-conscious about their defects, "said Mr Tam.

In order to operate a coffee shop is difficult, running a coffee shop hosing staff having disabilities has encountered more challenges. Prior to opening Angel, Mr Tam had spent a year perfecting the operation process and finding ways to limit difficulties arising with his employees in the process of working.

He instructs them on how to greet guests, express gratitude, register shifts, and how to serve politely. Apart from that, he also learns the sign language of the deaf to facilitate communication as well as arrange reasonable working positions or shifts to ensure that the employees can catch up well with the pace of work.

Sometimes, he also has to explain gently with customers when they complain about the service attitude because they do not know of the disabilities of the café’s staff

Besides the employees who are disabled, other employees of the café are required to learn sign language to facilitate exchange, chat and support colleagues. In the upcoming time, Mr Tam is slated to arrange some boards featuring sign language for visitors to the shop learning by themselves to communicate with the disabled.

According to Mr Bui Thanh Thanh Van, a coffee drinker at the café,  it's really meaningful to have such a special coffee shop in Da Nang. The staff here are very agile, polite and dedicated. Thus, this business model needs to be developed to create more jobs for people with disabilities.

Ms Dang Huong Giang, Vice President of the Da Nang Association of People with Disabilities, shared that the association itself has coordinated to introduce the disabled to coffee shops for working. If the coffee shop can maintain this meaningful activity for a long time, it will be a practical model, creating integration opportunities for the deaf and dumb, and the disabled in general.

Reporting by XUAN SON- Translating by T.VY