After departing from Managua we traveled on to Masaya where we visited an active volcano and from there we continued on to Granada where we sat down with the owner, founder, and operator of Cafe de la Sonrisas or ‘Smiles Coffee’. Antonio spoke to us about moving from Spain to Latin America in hopes of opening a restaurant in Costa Rica. Along the way he ended up in Nicaragua cooking for adolescents and young adults with physical disabilities.
The blind and deaf children as well as other at risk youth could not get jobs so Antonio decided to open a shop for making hammocks and taught the children how to make hammocks (it’s a large tourist attraction).
He also opened a restaurant attached to the facility. This restaurant is only open until 3:00pm so that mothers do not worry about their children with disabilities. In order for the deaf workers to wait tables Antonio came up with a system which uses pictures in the menu to allow workers and customers to work together.
From there Antonio began to start other service projects such as allowing breast feeding mothers to come to the restaurant and breast feed their babies while enjoying a drink for free.
The work Antonio is doing is the work that could make the world a much better place.
A basic human right is to have the right to fully develop.