Cookies for a cause

By Hiranthi Fernando

For eight handicapped young people, the Palette International Cookie Bakery at Meegoda means more than a regular job. Stifled by the monotony of their lives of total dependence on others, the Cookie Bakery job is a breath of fresh air, offering them a chance of going out into the world, being usefully employed and earning a wage. They are now diligently engaged in making high quality homemade cookies in the small but scrupulously clean workplace.

The Cookie Bakery is located in an airy, new building at Mithuhenawatta, Meegoda, close to Homagama. All footwear is left outside. Clad in white aprons, caps and masks the eight young people are busy at a stainless steel worktop in a spacious hall. The dough for the four flavours of cookies-peanut, raisin, coconut and sesame has already been prepared in four stainless steel bowls and as one pipes it onto baking trays, the others shape it to the required size and shape. 

Hygienic process: the biscuit factory at Homagama

The trays with the finished cookies are then taken to the baking room equipped with three ovens, two for the cookies and one for baking cakes, which operation they hope to start at a later stage. Once baked, the cookies are sealed in 90 gram transparent packs and placed in cardboard cartons, ready for dispatch. The entire process is handled in an extremely hygienic manner.

The Cookie Bakery, which opened last October is a project of Palette International Japan. This nongovernmental organization established in Japan since1985 started in Tokyo by opening a cookie bakery which employed people with disabilities, explained Mr. Hiroaki Soma who directs the local operation. "At that time, there were very few institutions in Japan for disabled people," Mr. Soma said."

Mr. Soma first came to Sri Lanka seven years ago with a group of 20 disabled Japanese and they visited institutions such as Sarvodaya, the Victoria Home for Incurables and the Deaf School. Palette International began an exchange programme for students through Sarvodaya. "We then looked for another programme to help the disabled here," Mr. Soma said. "We have skills in making cookies and we felt the disabled in Japan could help the disabled in Lanka to do the same." 

Planning began three years ago and funds were collected from individuals and companies in Japan. In Sri Lanka, the owner of Midaya Ceramics, Dayasiri Warnakul-asooriya, gave the land free of any rental, for the factory building. When they advertised for people with disabilities to be employed at the factory, there were 50 applicants. They recruited eight, five men and three women and trained them to make the cookies. The ingredients and the quantities are indicated on a board each day and the youth seem to manage very well. They are all from around Homagama so travel easily to the workplace. They are provided with lunch and tea free. 

Gayani Kotalawala comes daily to work in a van with her father, who runs a school service. It is her first job. Dharshana, 17, an orphan who lives with an uncle at Kottawa is happy to have some earnings of his own. Palitha Attygalle, 30, who earlier worked with his brother making artworks for calendars enjoys his new career.

A member of the office staff, Indika Jayasinghe said they make five kilograms of 'Palette Home-made Cookies' daily for regular orders. They supply to ten outlets of Cargills Food City, two outlets of Crystal Supermarket and the Galadari Hotel. They also have a counter in the Midaya Ceramic showroom at Liberty Plaza. However, to cover their running expenses, they need to supply 20 kgs of cookies daily. Although they have an industrial mixer, which could take in 16 kilograms, at present due to low production they use a smaller hand mixer. They now manage only because of the donations they get from Japan. "If we get more orders, we can pay the workers more and also employ more disabled people," Indika said. 

They could start making cakes as well if they had more customers. The motto of their founder in establishing these projects is to help others to help themselves. By helping these young disabled people to be gainfully employed they are striving to achieve this aim. 

More Plus

Return to Plus Contents