A new bakery at a center for people with special needs in the southern coastal city of Tyre is attracting customers from across the country, including locals and UNIFIL forces stationed nearby.
Sonbola Bakery serves fresh bread, desserts and more. Attached to the Mosan Center for Special Needs, the bakery is managed by a group of students with special needs who bake and manage the business.
“Our students have the skill, power and determination, and they are capable of working. A German chef first conducted the training and now our students can bake bread and desserts on their own,” said Najat Sekmani, Mosan’s executive director as Bilal, one of the bakers, rushed to finish an order for members of UNIFIL’s Austrian contingent.
Sekmani said the bakery received support from the Social Affairs Ministry and from Tyre’s residents.
“Now, we have customers coming in from all over the south and Beirut because we have fresh and natural bread,” she added.
Ali Charafeddine, Mosan’s general manager, said the center opened in 1993 to fill a need for services geared toward people with disabilities in Tyre. “It was difficult at first, because no one would admit their child suffered from disabilities,” he told The Daily Star.
The NGO started with seven children, and now provides education and care to 170 children with a range of special needs, from Down syndrome to cerebral palsy and autism.
The students, among them Lebanese, Egyptian, Syrian and Palestinian children, are aged between 3 and 20, with 69 girls and women and 101 boys and men.
Twelve students work at the newly opened bakery for approximately three hours a day and receive salaries, supervised by a group of teachers and coaches.
“The social stigma against [people with special needs] must end, and this experience proves that they are productive and generous,” Sekmani said.
The center’s behavioral specialist, Sally Nehmeh, said: “Everyone is subject to danger during their work, and we always accompany the students in the bakery. But they have been trained and now they are very careful about what they are doing.”
The head of the UNIFIL’s Italian contingent, Col. Giacomo Giannattasio, who was visiting the bakery, said he and his troops regularly visit the Mosan Center and purchase Sonbola’s baked goods.
“We are here today to extend our Christmas and New Year’s greetings and to express our support to the students,” Giannattasio said.
Meanwhile, Bilal lines up the dough and puts it inside the oven.
“We must wash our hands, wear the gloves and cover the head. Working with food requires cleanliness and care,” Bilal said.
Bilal has mastered the art of baking bread, desserts and croissants.
“The pizza we offer is the best,” he added. “We bake great pizza, but I cannot tell you the recipe, because it is our secret.”
This article has been adapted from its original source.
