Cue Café and Gallery Kaleb, Bitung Disabled Community Contemporary Enterprises
Bitung, December 20, 2022 - Elton, one of the Baristas at Cue Café and Gallery Kaleb, made the drinks that the visitors ordered deftly. It did not take long for the palm sugar coffee ordered using sign language to be served at the table.
The Cue Cafe and gallery are managed by the Bitung Caring Deaf community (Kaleb), supported by Pertamina through a social and environmental responsibility program, providing training in food processing and coffee mixing skills. Thus, they can serve delicious cafe-style food and drinks.
Apart from the café, there is also a gallery that sells creative products such as t-shirts, goodie bags, key chains, and wallets made of coconut shells produced by the Kaleb disabled community.
Donna Charista, the founder of the Kaleb disabled community, also expressed her deepest gratitude to Pertamina for what has been provided so far, not only in the form of material but also non-material. "People at Kaleb feel very happy to be given a place to work and be independent. They feel that they are also capable like other people who do not have limitations. They can work hard and fight for their lives," she said.
Executive General Manager of PT Pertamina Patra Niaga Sulawesi Region, Erwin Dwiyanto, at the Cue Café and Kaleb Gallery inauguration held on Monday (19/12), said "The impact of this program if maintained and developed, can reduce or even have the opportunity to eliminate negative perspectives or discriminatory attitude towards the disabled. They do not need to be pitied or specialized. They need to be given equal opportunities in all aspects of administering the country, or we can start with the smallest scope first, such as opportunities to live independently and prosper.
Moreover, Erwin invited all guests who attended the inauguration to appreciate the disabled's work and inspire them through this cue cafe and gallery.
This coaching program for vulnerable groups of people with disabilities is a concrete form of supporting Sustainable Development Goals Number 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth; and Number 10: Reducing Inequality.
The Kaleb Disabled Community's journey, from a gathering place to a place of work
The KALEB community was formed in 2018 and started to be fostered by Pertamina in 2019. Before being fostered, the Kaleb community, which consists of deaf and mute disabled friends, only used Kaleb as a gathering place. Donna Chira, the founder of Kaleb, formed this community with the hope that friends with disabilities have a place to gather and tell stories. Therefore, they will not easily fall into drugs, promiscuity, or other social threats.
Pertamina Integrated Terminal Bitung, located not far from the gathering place for the Kaleb community, sees opportunities in empowering vulnerable groups. In 2019, Pertamina began to approach friends with disabilities and started to assist. The first assistance provided by Pertamina IT Bitung was sign language training and education, procuring hearing aids, procuring sewing and printing machines, as well as procuring tools/materials for organic and inorganic waste management activities.
As time goes by, seeing the positive activities in Kaleb increases its members. In 2020, Pertamina IT Bitung provided training and screen printing tools and created a literacy cafe for the Kaleb community. Apart from that, in the same year when Covid-19 started to enter Indonesia, Pertamina IT Bitung provided sewing skills training to the Kaleb community while still implementing the Covid protocol,. Thus, this community could continue to exist by producing cloth masks and hand sanitizers which the community needed to reduce covid-19 spread around Bitung.
Furthermore, in 2021, the assistance provided by Pertamina will begin to extend to culinary business assistance, training in making handicrafts from coconut shells to training to become a barista. After starting to see products produced by Kaleb's friends such as screen printing t-shirts, crafts, making coffee, and making food, finally, Cafe Cue and Gallery Kaleb were made and inaugurated on December 19, 2022, by the Executive General Manager of PT Pertamina Patra Niaga Sulawesi Region, Erwin Dwiyanto.**