In the new kitchen of Casa Mehari there is everything: it is like that of a restaurant, with all the necessary and safe equipment for the kids to work with, alongside professionals who will guide them with courses designed for starters. They will give lessons on pbaking, pastry making as well as actual cooking, but also dining. «Seeing the enthusiasm for all these new tools was exciting. We’re giving him a push, we’re telling him “you put yours, we give you the space to move forward” he says, his voice full of emotion Maria Trapanese, for everyone the beloved Mariolinasoul of La Bottega dei Semplici Pensieri, who on this project will work with the social enterprise La Scheggia, which is instead dedicated to supporting young people who are victims of addictions.
The new “Casa Mehari restaurant”
In the kitchen of Casa Mehari they will be together and the kids involved, all around 20/30 years old, will immediately put the teachings into practice: both to be employed outside and to create a real restaurant inside the boss’s former villa, which has a beautiful garden complete with a swimming pool. Small convivial moments are already being organized alongside the many cultural events of the associations it hosts, but the aim is to have a real Casa Mehari menu, like in a restaurant. «All this has made the kids very responsible. They feel they have the tools to build a future, to make it”continues Mariolina.
Inclusion and «motivation
«Cooking is one of those jobs that can stimulate all the senses, says Gennaro Esposito when we ask him why cooking, in his opinion, is proving to be a privileged tool for redemption with many other highly successful projects – above all PizzaAut – involving children with disabilities. «We need to stimulate their sensitivity, show them that there is a job in which what counts is creativity, and not disability. There is a lot of talk about inclusion, but in reality there are always few concrete attempts. I would rather talk about motivation: you have to give people motivation to make sure that they come out, that they show talents that you would never have thought of. But they are useful patience, feeling, love, to show a new path to those who often live in the belief that they have no right to access the dynamics of real life: for this reason we will never work hard enough. We must not give up: we must continue to explore with them, to believe in ourselves first. Everyone: institutions, schools, private individuals, citizens. No one excluded.”
