MITTI- A social Initiative Foundation

Mitti Café is a chain of cafes that provides experiential training and employment to hundreds of adults with physical, intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. PWDs globally are marginalised and do not get access to opportunities, which is a result of the perceptions of people around disabilities. MITTI Cafe wishes to break these stereotypes and inspire people to drive inclusion. MITTI Cafe is a tangible, interactive model of inclusion that connects people through the medium of food. A simple, replicable model that can be implemented anywhere across the globe.

During the recent COVID crisis, our wonderful team of adults with disabilities cooked and served over 1.3 million meals to the frontline healthcare workers, poor COVID +ve patients and their caregivers. The awareness created resonated our mission of empowerment of PWDs that leads to them contributing to the world in need.

MITTI Cafe would run the following programs with the funding:

1. MITTI Cafe: Setting up of inclusive cafes all across the world celebrating the achievements of PWDs - creating awareness and changing perceptions with each meal served.

2. MITTI Karuna Meals: A compassion meal program MITTI Karuna (Compassion) Meals cooked and served by PWDs to eliminate hunger for the homeless and the economically underprivileged. This also creates awareness about disability at the last mile, where most of our cohort comes from to drive systemic changes in perceptions of the communities.

I started Mitti Café while at University with an aim to create platforms for adults with physical, intellectual and psychiatric disabilities to showcase their abundant potential for productive activity and create awareness for the cause of equal opportunities in employment.Our team of adults with disability have cooked and served over 5 million meals in 3 years ,thereby creating awareness about inclusion and the magic of abilities with every meal served.Our team of PWDs have additionally served over 1.3  million Karuna(Compassion) Meals to the economically vulnerable and the homeless during Covid 19.

Our goal for the next  3 years is to:

• Start 50 MITTI  Cafes in 4 cities and serve over 1.02 crore Food & Beverages through our team of adults with disabilities. Awareness created with every meal served.
• Serve over 2 Million MITTI Karuna(Compassion) Meals cooked and served with love by our adults with disabilities to the economically vulnerable thus creating awareness at the grassroots.
• Experientially train and place Over 2000 Persons with Disabilities in MTTI Cafe and other institutions
• Include 40000+ Persons from marginalised and vulnerable communities in the journey to economic empowerment and dignified livelihoods through MITTI Bazaar for GOOD

There are an estimated 1 billion persons with disabilities worldwide. 1 in 5 of the poorest people in the world have disabilities. Skill Development and Employment is the only opportunity for PwD to exhibit their talent, demonstrate their abilities, grow capabilities and overcome the stigma/barrier of disability. However, there are several challenges for PWDs to enter the job market- the lack of education, lack of financial resources, accessible workspaces, attitudes of employers. 

Each cafe employs 8-15 PWDs who together run and manage all the cafe operations. The cafe is an interactive and tangible model of inclusion where people see PWDs in action: managing the cafe, serving food, interacting with customers, creating stories of inclusion with every meal they serve. Our team of adults with disabilities have inspired many organisations and individuals to create inclusion in their own ways. Each MITTI Cafe also is a platform for training more PWDs who are empowered to lead independent and dignified lives.

All our cafes are self sustainable and provide for salaries, accomodation, food and mobility support for all employees in the cafe.

Disaster relief: During the COVID crisis our team served over 1.3 million meals to the poor and needy.

Our unique selling point is our cause. Development is inclusive and can only happen by embracing and empowering people from the most vulnerable factions of society, and an efficient way to do it is through enabling them with a means to livelihood which is both sustainable and allows them to lead a life with dignity.

MITTI Cafe is a unique concept that focuses on skilling and placing women and men with physical, mental and psychiatric disabilities in the hospitality sector. MITTI is the first to both train and employ candidates with different disabilities, giving the opportunity to employees and students to normalise working with the differently-abled. In a standard Mitti setup, we have candidates on wheelchair, hearing and speech impaired candidates, candidates with cerebral palsy, down syndrome, autism, visual impairment, dwarfism etc. working and getting trained together in different roles as per their abilities and interest, while they support and complement each other.

MITTI is strongly inclined towards creating measurable impact in the perception of the community towards various disabilities. Our first employee, Kirti, came crawling for the interview as her parents could not afford a wheelchair. Today, sitting on her wheelchair she manages 8 other persons with disabilities and is a motivational speaker. MITTI Cafe has hundreds of Kirtis empowered to live with dignity. 

Our belief in the tremendous potential of every human life leads us to engage with role models like Sabeeha. Sabeeha came to us with multiple sclerosis where both her hands and legs don't function and today after her training, Sabeeha owns her own grocery store where she employs 2 other persons with disabilities and is a vendor to MITTI Cafe as well!

Impact through MITTI-

89% of MITTI’s beneficiaries with disabilities come from low income backgrounds. Majority are the main/sole earning members.

92% of our adults with disability have not got formal education/dropped out of school before class 10

67% of our Managers are women with disability,43 MITTI Moms (mothers of PwDs)

Mitti Cafe works for the economic independence & dignity of persons with disabilities.

Our livelihood development verticals provide skills and employment for PWDs. In addition, our outreach activities generate awareness about inclusion and empower persons with disabilities (PWDs) to support themselves and become frontline heroes through programs that would alleviate hunger for the poor and create awareness about inclusion.

Jobs created for persons with disability, post-training: 

Present:  870

Next year: 1200

PWDs directly working at Mitti Cafe:

Present: 116

Next year:150

Livelihoods supported through Mitti Good Gifts: 

Current: 1000 PWDs and persons from other vulnerable communities

Next year: 2000, involving 100+ NGOs

Compassion Meals served by our team of adults with disability to the poor and the vulnerable:

Current year:2  million

Next year: 2.5 Million

Meals served and awareness created

Current year:  6 mn

Next year: 7 mn

Development is inclusive and can only happen by embracing and empowering persons from the most vulnerable fractions of society. An efficient way to do it is through enabling them with a means to livelihood, which is both sustainable and allows them to lead a life with dignity. Mitti Cafés create platforms for persons with physical, intellectual and psychiatric disabilities to showcase their abundant potential for productive activity and create awareness for the cause of equal opportunities.

We will continue to measure and build progress on the following SDGs:

• SDG 8: 26 MITTI Cafes offering sustainable employment and experiential training to 1460 PWDs. MITTI Good Gifts offers increased livelihoods for 2000 beneficiaries through 100 partner NGOs.

• SDG 1: MITTI beneficiaries: 92% without formal education. 89% from low-income backgrounds, primary/sole earning members, rehabilitated from streets. 

• SDG 10: 1200+ PwDs experientially trained, 90% placed

• SDG 2: 2.5 million Compassion Meals served to the economically vulnerable affected by the pandemic

• SDG 5: 67% of our Managers are women with disability, 43 MITTI Moms (mothers of PwDs)

• SDG 17: 7 million Meals+Beverages served in 4 years by our employees with disabilities, thereby enabling us to create awareness about inclusion with every meal served.

The Elevate Award would open up windows for national and international collaboration to realise our goal of economic independence and dignity for persons with disabilities.

• Business Development: A majority of our cafes within large corporations went into hibernation, leading us to pivot to partnering with hospitals, educational institutions and cafes in public spaces. We believe the awareness and recognition with the Prize would open up doors to many more partnerships within institutions willing to give us space to start cafes.

• Funding: Our initial set-up for cafes need grants and funding; we also need funding for our disaster relief efforts through our Karuna (Compassion) meals initiative. The grant could potentially open up funding opportunities to support us with our impact work.

• Establishing Market linkages: B2B and B2C linkages are required for success for the new e-commerce platform to create a global marketplace for the NGOs and their beneficiaries. The awareness which comes with the Prize could support us with regional and global market linkages to sell products leading to economic independence for people from vulnerable communities.

• Talent Acquisition: We could attract passionate talent through volunteers and mentors who could support our various verticals leading to greater impact.

MITTI aims to create an inclusive world where people have an opportunity for a dignified living. However, this is only possible when the communities are motivated to participate in creating opportunities for inclusion. MITTI has chosen the medium of food that transcends boundaries with global appeal. Our wonderful, inspiring stories of real people who display the exalted virtues of perseverance, hard work, integrity, courage, selflessness while overcoming their disabilities will find a platform through Elevate.

Four years ago, our first candidate, a girl who came crawling for an interview because her parents couldn’t afford a wheelchair. Today, sitting in her wheelchair, she manages 10 other PWDs. She is Kirti, the manager of our first cafe. Stories of thousands of empowered Kirti’s who have been experientially trained and now live their lives with dignity need to reach and inspire the world. Our team of adults with disabilities have cooked and served over 6 million meals, including during the pandemic, enabling us to create awareness about inclusion with every meal served.

Elevate campaigns are what we need to spread heroic stories of inclusion that can create awareness and inspire millions to take part in the movement of inclusion.

As part of our organisational culture, we have always valued diversity. The majority of our board of directors are women. 67% of our second line of leadership are women with disabilities - Gauri, with 100% visual impairment, is our lead trainer. Many of our mentors and coaches reside in different countries who bring in diversity that enhances our perspective on solutions.

We apply a bottom-up approach to formulating policies and governance, giving every individual an opportunity to devise solutions. Each of our team members, whether it is Sadique in a wheelchair, Lakshmi-single mother of two children only earning member of her family(she can't hear or speak), Murthy our single-handed warrior, Dharneshwari with 100% visual impairment or Toushit with Down Syndrome-they all work and lead with a sense of ownership, which has enabled us to both pivot and scale.

Once, such a solution that led to a unique compassion meal program came from a person with cerebral palsy, who was rehabilitated from the streets and works and lives permanently at MITTI. 

Our teams lead our programs and cafes, are trainers to other PWDs looking to start a career and are the brand ambassadors of inclusive, dignified living.

We started our first cafe in a tin shed, and today we have 16 experiential training cafes employing and providing skill development opportunities to thousands of persons with disabilities. 

90% of our team are persons with disabilities. We have been true to our collective mission of economic independence and dignity, pivoting to continue to provide sustainable livelihoods for our impact stakeholders through the COVID outbreak. With our strong ethos of collaboration to build a community and ecosystem to drive inclusion, we have been able to bring together individuals, NGOs, corporates, institutions and agencies to further our impact. 

Examples of what we have achieved through our participatory approach to problem-solving and implementing solutions are:

1. MITTI Karuna (Compassion) Meals program is a unique disaster management program led by PWDs - the team has served over 2 million meals to the needy. We reached the most impacted areas through a network of over 45 different NGOs. 

2. MITTI Good Gifts skills and engages women with disabilities & marginalised communities to create gifts and products. Last year, we delivered over 8000 gifts and are now developing an e-comm platform to engage over 10,000 beneficiaries through 100+ NGOs.

Alina Alam, who is the Founder-CEO of Mitti Cafe, started her journey when she was 23 years old after graduating from university, with the dream of showing the world the magic of abilities. She started her journey with empty pockets, failed sales attempts and multiple rejections. Her first cafe was in a dilapidated tin shed full of generations of rats. She, however, turned scarcity into an opportunity to be creative and realised the power of the community. She involved students in helping her clean the tin shed; she convinced the community to start Mitti Cafe-90% of her equipment, right from spoons to a second-hand fridge and other vessels, donated by the community by strangers. Alina’s adamance, desperation and passion for bringing about change, her lack of inhibition to ask for community support and leech-like attitude have resulted in impact thousands of persons with disability and serving lakhs of free meals cooked and served with the support of her team of PWDs during the pandemic to the poorest and vulnerable. Food and technology were the two mediums used to generate livelihood opportunities, provide relief and create awareness around inclusion.

• Forbes List -30Under30-Asia-Social Entrepreneurs 2020- https://www.forbes.com/profile/alina-alam/#2b4fb84828d9 
• Better India- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooGjypwrIr8. 
• Mitti Cafe Covid Heroes - 
• Alina Alam, Founder & CEO, Mitti Cafe On NewsX | 2nd Wave Superheroes

• Alina Alam Commonwealth Youth Award- https://thecommonwealth.org/media/news/20-finalists-announced-commonwealth-youth-awards-2021
• Brut- https://www.facebook.com/brutindia/videos/bhairappa-and-roopa-a-love-story/834987720592332/
• TEDx- https://cutt.ly/uyMZFjV 
• NDTV Feature- https://cutt.ly/RyMF8WC 
• Mitti Cafe- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tvTiIKOJGU
• Better India- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooGjypwrIr8. 
• Milaap Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYbSkXRD7Zo
• Edex Live- https://www.edexlive.com/beinspired/2021/jan/20/how-karnatakas-mitti-cafe-served-over-6-lakh-meals-to-the-homeless-during-covid-19-lockdown-17442.html
• Logical Indian- https://thelogicalindian.com/inclusivity/mitti-cafe-bengaluru-specially-abled-employees-27536
• Hindustan times- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/bengaluru-match-made-in-heaven-blossomed-in-a-caf/articleshow/79273671.cms
• Bangalore Mirror- https://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/bangalore/others/bengaluru-match-made-in-heaven-blossomed-in-a-caf/articleshow/79276866.cms
• She Unltd Award Alina Alam- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/spotlight/here-are-the-bengaluru-winners-of-the-times-she-unltd-entrepreneur-awards-2019/articleshow/69800979.cms
• Chandana- shorturl.at/hzC02 
• The Hindu- shorturl.at/dhS37 
• Reader’s Digest- shorturl.at/bginU 
• Your Humanity- https://cutt.ly/uyMFHHG| 
• Inclusive India- https://cutt.ly/NyMFGkU.  
• Indian Express Magazine- https://cutt.ly/SyMFUIf 
• The Hindu- https://cutt.ly/0yMFIZY
• New Indian Express-  https://cutt.ly/ryMFP5d- https://cutt.ly/7yMFFsO
• Newshook- https://cutt.ly/7yMFZsw  
• Your Story- https://cutt.ly/lyMFKz1 
• Hindustan Times- https://cutt.ly/UyMFChy 
• The Stories of Change- https://cutt.ly/7yMF2eS

Our passionate impact goals at MITTI Cafe to empower the most vulnerable are audacious. Our team has the passion, determination, adamance and leech-like attitude towards achieving the dream of inclusion and economic independence of those in the world who deserve so many more opportunities than they get.

To reach out to the billionth person across the world for whom economic independence and dignity is not a reality, community participation and awareness is non-negotiable. We want to include every single institution and individual to create the difference that we want to see. Our goal is to have a world free from barriers of perceptions that inhibit others from achieving their goals of dignified living, economic activity and participation in the community.

As Elevate Prize winner, we will reach out to a wider audience through mentors and a talented and passionate community cohort. The fantastic media campaigns and presence will help us reach out to both PWDs and agencies across the globe to make inclusion a reality for all. 

We started with one Kirti, have reached thousands, but there are a billion in the waiting, and we believe that ELEVATE can be a game-changer.

Our impact partners support us with resource mobilization, talent acquisition, business development, and knowledge sharing. Each of these organisations supports us and  endorse our  impact work :

• Forbes 30 under 30 list

• Federation of Commonwealth Youth

• Zero Project Cohort

• Emerge Women Entrepreneurs

• Indo-Australian Women Entrepreneurs Association

• Singapore International Foundation

• Young Entrepreneurs Changemakers Program-UNESCO

• Disability NGOs Alliance ( DNA)

• Women Entrepreneurs Federation

• Confederation of Indian Industries

• Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FICCI)

• NSRCEL- IIM Bangalore

• Unlimited India

• Social Venture Partners

• Nudge Foundation for Social Innovation

• Enable India

• Sonder Connect