Nicafé
Emcadisa, which stands for empoderar capacidades diferentes (or loosely translated to empower people with different capabilities) is a key component of Sonrisas Felices.
In late 2021 Jeffrey Landi and his partners Katie Brugger & Javier Flores wanted to create a project designed to provide opportunities to differently-abled people in the area of Rivas, Nicaragua. After considerable exploration, we discovered a sizable segment of young Nicaraguans who were deaf. Most had never worked before and were essentially languishing at home, unseen and uninvolved in their community. We chose to focus on their fundamental need for work and thus created a micro-enterprise called Emcadisa.
Today, Emcamdisa has two parts, a restaurant called Nicafé and a plant nursery, or vivero, called Plantafé.
We hired ten people, seven of whom were deaf. We brought on a sign language interpreter, and the whole team trained extremely hard to establish communication and logistical workflows.
Our grand opening was January 15, 2022. The mayor of San Juan del Sur proudly cut our ribbon and we have been a small beacon of inclusivity, opportunity, and incredible energy ever since.
Our purpose with this program is to be an incubator, a caldo de cultivo, for our staff – so they gain the experience, skills and confidence to find jobs elsewhere…enabling us to bring in the next set of people that desperately need work.
Nicafé consists of the following:
• 8 employees, including 3 deaf servers, 2 deaf cooks, 1 person with a physical disability, 1 hearing chef/manager who learned 200 signs related to the kitchen (in just 10 days), and 1 caretaker
• The restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch. We are proud to report that 65% of our business comes from Nicaraguans. Staff is cross-trained in all aspects of the restaurant, and covers the nursery when needed.