Café Równik – a unique club-café (video)

December 3 is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. However, on this day, just like any other, we invite you for a coffee and cake at Café Równik in Wrocław’s Nadodrze district. We have made a video that reveals the story of this extraordinary place whose good-natured spirit is prof. Małgorzata Młynarska, a linguist from the University of Wrocław

‘Równik’ is a club-café in Wrocław’s Nadodrze district, where waiters and baristas with disabilities work. For them, work is a form of therapy, and the visitors are their therapists.

Club-café ‘Café Równik’ is the result of years of cooperation between the University of Wrocław and the Association of Creators and Supporters of Psychostimulation. The university scientifically developed a speech and thought therapy method. The therapy is conducted under the supervision of specialists at the Association of Creators and Supporters of Psychostimulation, which has been cooperating with the university since 1995.

The project is supervised by linguist dr hab. Małgorzata Młynarska, prof. UWr and psychologist dr hab. Tomasz Smerek.

We visited Café Równik on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Meet Piotr, Karolina, Dominik, professor Małgorzata Młynarska and the rest of the equatorial team.

Prof. Młynarska states: – In Poland, people with disabilities who finish their education are still in a difficult situation. They do not know what to do with themselves. And their families again have to attempt to organise care for them. We thought it would be good to see if they could continue their therapy after finishing their education – through work. We figured we would try to make a coffee shop where they could be waiters.

– Guests who come here, in a sense, become therapists,” emphasises prof. Młynarska

Translated by Gabriela Zimkowska (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.