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Bengaluru-based NGO, Solidarity Foundation has announced its partnership with Amadeus to launch the ‘Pride Café’, an initiative to empower the LGBTQIA+ community with livelihood opportunities.
As part of the initiative, Amadeus will sponsor two mobile food trucks that will employ 12 members of the LGBTQIA+ community, seven of whom have already been recruited.
Community members have been trained and equipped with culinary and customer service skills to successfully manage food truck operations.
The official launch of the café was inaugurated by acclaimed actress and theatre personality, Arundhati Nag, and renowned activist, singer, and drag queen Alex Mathew, popularly known as Maya the Drag Queen.
The initiative is supported by organizations including WeWork (Location partner), Agape Hospitality Consultants (Operations Partner), the Aravani Art Project, and Desavous (Design Partner) who joined the Solidarity Foundation, and Amadeus to launch Pride Café.
The food trucks, which began operations on January 9th, 2023, were painted by the Aravani Art Project. They will continue to offer breakfast, lunch, snacks, and tea/coffee services at the WeWork Galaxy on Residency Road, Bengaluru.
Additionally, Jogappas, a traditional transgender community shared their most revered and beloved music for the festivities, while Maya performed at the launch event.
“The project’s vision is to facilitate an enriched dialogue between community members and society. As per a livelihood needs assessment of the LGBTQIA+ communities (conducted by Solidarity Foundation, Sangama, and Best Practices Foundation), the average daily income in the community is Rs 384. The exclusion of the community from the workforce is the primary reason for these low economic gains,” the statement said.
“Amadeus strongly believes in the potential of the Pride Café to become a successful commercial venture in the days to come, alleviating social exclusion and ensuring equality of employment conditions. Pride Café is in essence an innovative initiative to create a platform that aims to garner visibility and help these members with the opportunity to overcome key obstacles they confront on a day-to-day basis,” it added.
“Furthermore, every member received training in English, computers, financial literacy, mental well-being, and the hospitality skills needed to operate and own a mobile kitchen vehicle. With a motive to make a real difference, the initiative has an equal pay policy for all employees, including those serving in the kitchen, truck, cleaning, cooking, and service roles, as a first and promising step towards an inclusive future,” the statement said.
“While LGBTQIA+ community members experience discrimination and human rights abuses at all stages of the educational and employment process, the Pride Café is an initiative to provide an egalitarian and stigma-free working environment,” the statement further added.