Sisipho Dumse won the Distell inter-hotel challenge awards barista category, and she is calling the win a win for the deaf community.
Cape Town, South Africa (23 December 2021) – Sisipho Dumse, 24-years-old, has been working at I Love Coffee since 2019 and is over the moon about her win. She is the 2021 winner of the Distell Inter-Hotel challenge Barista Award.
Since starting at I Love Coffee, Sisipho has worked on her craft as a barista and loves the profession. She hopes that her win will inspire others to keep on pushing to reach their dreams.
I Love Coffee is a Cape-based social enterprise that trains and employs Deaf baristas to work as frontline staff in its stores.
Of the estimated 2-million disabled people in South Africa, 500,000 are classified as ‘Deaf’, and almost 1.5-million South Africans are considered to be ‘hearing-impaired’, which means that 4.5% of South Africa’s total population is Deaf.
Employment is one of the biggest challenges the Deaf face in South Africa – this is evident in light of the fact that 70% of persons who are hearing impaired are unemployed.
Sisipho shared that her win is a win for everyone from the deaf community. It shows that anything is possible. She joined I Love Coffee in the hopes of building up her confidence so she can become a teacher one day. What she never expected was finding a place where she fit in perfectly. Now she teaches her customers how to place their favourite orders.
“I wanted to be a teacher, but I’ve faced a lot of obstacles. When I joined I Love Coffee, I developed confidence,” she said.
“I realised that this is where I want to be because there is sign language within the company. It has changed so much for me,”
If you want to learn how to order your coffee in sign language, you can learn via the I Love Coffee website here.
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