Serving with kindness: the Hong Kong restaurant that helps people with intellectual disabilities find their way in the workplace
- Holy Cafe in Cheung Sha Wan employs staff with mental disabilities, offering them a welcoming space free from discrimination
- Owner Maria Sung opened the restaurant to give her autistic daughter a place to work
Every day at lunch hour, a small restaurant in Cheung Sha Wan is packed with diners. But, unlike most establishments in the city, the pace is not hectic; dishes are served slowly and diners do not mind that most of the employees have mental disabilities.
The restaurant, named Holy Cafe, serves western-style food and was opened in 2011 by Maria Sung Law Man-kwan. The initial idea was to give her autistic daughter, who had difficulty finding a suitable job, something to do.
Having seen the challenges facing people with mental disabilities in the job market and their potential, Sung, 60, opens the door to them.
“They are a bit slow in understanding and working, but they are willing to learn and work hard as long as they are given opportunities,” she says.
There are anywhere between 71,000 and 101,000 people in Hong Kong with intellectual disabilities – between 1 and 1.4 per cent of the population – according to a 2013 survey by the Census and Statistics Department. Many of them have limitations in learning and reasoning and lack social skills.
Sung’s daughter Flora Sung Shui-woon was diagnosed with autism – a neurobehavioural condition characterised by difficulties in social interaction and communication – at the age of 12. She had learning difficulties at school and showed signs of rigid, repetitive behaviour like walking in straight lines and fearing changes.
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Bringing up Flora alone was hard, Sung says, as her husband died of liver cancer soon after their daughter was born.
Flora studied clerical work skills at a special training school for three years, but she was unable to get a job. To help her daughter find something to do, Sung sold her flat and used the money to open a restaurant. She named it “Holy”, which sounds like “hei lok” in Cantonese, meaning joy and happiness.
To Sung’s delight, Flora enjoyed the restaurant work and became more relaxed in front of people. She has started chatting with frequent diners.
“I love working with my mum,” Flora says.
Having seen her daughter struggle and then improve through working at the restaurant, Sung decided to employ others with mental disabilities, hoping to provide them with a welcoming environment where they can work independently, free from discrimination.
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Now five of the restaurant’s eight staff members are mentally disabled. They take orders, serve dishes, collect payments and clean the restaurant.
The biggest challenge, Sung says, was to teach and train them. People with intellectual disabilities can learn new things, but they learn at a slower pace. Sung taught her employees for months before they started working.
Yan Mo-chi, 45, has been working at Holy Cafe for a year. She has Down’s syndrome – a genetic disorder which results in physical growth delays and intellectual disability.
Compared with her previous clerical job, where she did not get along with colleagues, Yan enjoys the restaurant’s environment, where both colleagues and customers are pleasant.
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“I like working here. I like learning new things,” she says.
Yan and other mentally handicapped employees are hardworking and willing to learn, Sung says.
Most customers are understanding and do not mind the slower pace of service. Some even come from afar to show support.
Grace Yip Kit-wah, 51, is a regular. “I never look down on them. They are good at their work here, maybe a bit slow. I try to talk to them slowly so they can understand me,” she says.
Sung has also received support from the government and NGOs, as well as individuals who care about the underprivileged. She was awarded The One Hong Kong Humanitarian Award 2019 for helping those with mental disabilities.
To give back to society, Sung and her daughter hand out 150 free meals for the elderly every Saturday evening. She plans to expand the restaurant to offer more opportunities for those with intellectual disabilities.
