23 Mar 2017

World Cuisine Skills Centre on March 20 held their inaugural graduation ceremony in Bokaa to honour 13 disabled people for completing training on cuisine skills.

Coordinator for People Living with Disability, Mr Thomas Motingwa expressed gratitude for the promise fulfilled, noting that during the official opening of the college last year, a promise was made that 10 people living with disability would be trained for free.  

Mr Motingwa, who was speaking on behalf of the Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Eric Molale, appreciated the partnership that his office had with World Cuisine Skills Centre that gave birth to the achievement.

“We thank the centre for choosing People with Disabilities as beneficiaries of their corporate social responsibility.”

He further said research had shown that it was difficult to separate disability and poverty, hence the reason people with disabilities needed utmost care while their requests must be attended to without delay.

Mr Motingwa said research had also shown that usually where poverty was, there was a tendency to be some form of disability and this has borne a brunt on government as a lot of money had to be used for destitution basket.

He said the Office of the President did not encourage that people living with disabilities be impoverished, but they should be quickly assisted so that they can work for themselves.

The coordinator further said he believed that people with disabilities could work for themselves and add value to the economy of the country.

He added that barriers that hindered those people should be removed to enable them to work for themselves.

Mr Motingwa said, “it is our responsibility as a nation to include and empower people with disabilities; this is why Office of the President, through the Coordinating Office for People with Disabilities always looks for ways to empower people with disabilities.”

He said all stakeholders and development partners should come on board to empower people with disabilities to be independent and requested businesses ad Batswana at large to support them while the hospitality industry should employ them.

Mr Motingwa said government had taken a decision to immediately assist tpeople with disabilities and their assessments were done differently.

He congratulated the graduates for completing their courses, which included cookery, events management and flower arrangement.

When giving the course overview, the director of World Cuisine Skills Centre, Ms Charity Hiscox said they decided to include confidence building so that people with disabilities would not be afraid to do their work.

Ms Hiscox further said the graduates had learnt a lot and proved that they were able to do anything.

"I have seen talent these people have and cried when I saw the beauty they can do after being taught even doing it much better than myself.”

She said she was happy to have changed their lives and pray that they continue to practice what they have learnt.

She added that they would continue to support them in their businesses.

When giving testimonials, Ms Tshepo Monageng, one of the graduates said she did not know anything about cooking, especially foods sold at outlets.

She said she could now prepare most of the foods sold in outlets and proud to have discovered such skills because if it was not for the course, she would be at home feelling sorry for herself.

Kgosi Sue Mosinyi thanked the Hiscox family for surpassing their promise of providing their services to 10 disabled people for free. They added three more to the list.

Kgosi Mosinyi said he was thankful for the centre and for all the graduates who took their time to get training, which he said would be beneficial for their lives.

He said that was a stepping stone for the graduates and it was now their responsibility to go look for jobs and help maintain their own lifestyles. ENDS