A coffee shop in Lebanon has gone beyond just coffee. Along with serving homemade desserts, juice, and coffee, it has been fighting the stigma against hiring people with special needs.
Owner of Agonist coffee shop, Wassim El Hage, from Zalka, spent years working as a physiotherapist for people with disabilities. During that period of time, he realized how their skills were being underestimated, particularly in the workforce.“That is how the idea of Agonist came up: there had to be a way to shed light on these people, especially in the professional world,” he recalled in an interview with
Le Commerce Du Levant.
With the goal of providing opportunities to people with special needs, El Hage embarked on a journey to fund his dream. “I tried to get some fundraising or sponsorship without success. People were skeptical about the feasibility of the project and did not want to take risks,” he told
Arab Weekly. “[But] I have deep faith in the capacities of individuals with special needs. They are not abnormal, just special.”
Eventually, El Hage started the project on his own. He
said: “I financed this project via a personal loan that I obtained after two-and-a-half years. A consultant even told me he couldn’t evaluate the financial risk because it was so big. But that didn’t stop me.” In December 2018, Agonist opened its doors for the first time in Zalka.
To cope with the work environment, El Hage collaborated with the Lebanese Down Syndrome Association to recruit potential individuals. After training for a period of three months, they started to work.
Alluding to his employees, El Hage
said, “Their disabilities are of different types and degrees. Some can interact better than others, but they all have the capacity to grasp and understand what is requested of them.”
For most of the staff at Agonist, this opportunity marks their first-ever working experience. “None of the employees [have] ever worked, and some are over 40 years old!” El Hage
shared.
One such employee is Farah Ballout, who has Angelman Syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes delayed development. The young woman had never had a job prior to working at Agonist. “I feel like it is a dream that I started here,” Ballout told
Reuters in April 2019. “It feels like you are walking into your home—it doesn’t feel like you are going to work.”
Since the coffee shop’s opening, the place has been brimming with people looking for a caffeine fix.
“The reaction of the public is very positive. They are happy to be served by them. They take pictures with them, talk to them. I was a bit concerned in the beginning that the people would not accept the idea, but, on the contrary, the place is becoming very popular because of them,” El Hage told Arab Weekly.
In addition to the positive environment, this unique coffee shop has also become a source of inspiration for parents with children who have learning disabilities. “Parents whose kids have special needs told me they’re thrilled that for once, in a coffee shop, their children aren’t stared at. They added ‘you also gave us hope that when our children grow up, they will find work opportunities,” El Hage told
An-Nahar.
In addition, Agonist has opened another shop in the city’s capital,
Beirut, in early 2020.
However, for owner El Hage, he
said: “It is not my target to make money or to make profit for my own self. My target is to give them back this money [for them] to be integrated, to be independent, to have a real life.”
