The workshop comes alive at 8am at the Precious One, a handicrafts foundation in Kembangan, West Jakarta. Employees arrive one by one, greeting one another in sign language. P-One, as it’s called, is soon filled with the racket of sewing machines, scissors and other cutting tools.
January was a busy month completing orders from the Parkson and Centro department stores – including 7,000 linen ang pao (red envelope) money packets for Chinese New Year.
Founder Ratnawati Sutedjo shows the pouches they manufactured for the Year of the Fire Monkey along with handbags for ladies and slim sling bags for children, both sporting simian themes. “The monkey bags can be filled with family gifts or cookies or children can carry their ang pao in them,” she explains.
Bulk orders are common, coming from as far away as Australia. P-One once received an order for 10,000 tissue-holders, which it filled at a rate of 2,000 pieces a month, and another time made 4,600 koala pouches in three weeks – and that’s with just 18 employees, all of whom have impaired hearing. In its 11 years, the foundation has produced bed and kitchen linen, school visual aids, fruit-shaped soft toys and personalised paper dolls. Its reputation is built on cute and neat.
Evi, one of the staff who creates sewing patterns from the product designs, is proud that the items reach a wide range of customers. “In one day I saw a little kid wearing our sling bag and an old lady carrying our handbag,” she says, using sign language translated by Ratna.
Ratna asks her to show how a miniature paper doll is made, and her fingers move swiftly and skilfully as she rolls colourful paper into the body shape and a pair of shoes. The doll is finished in 15 minutes. Evi was P-One’s first employee, meeting Ratna more than a decade ago when the boss was seeking out a friend who was hearing-impaired. She’d made a commitment to help the deaf community after recovering from a long illness, during which she learned sign language.
“I went to Evi’s house to assure her parents I had good intentions,” Ratna says. “I understood that parents of people with hearing disabilities are often overprotective because, back then, their children were often mocked.”
A talented handcrafter, Ratna taught Evi to make hairpins and greetings cards, which sold well among her friends. Evi asked if her deaf friend could work with them and Ratna began thinking about a wider product range. “Within two years people started to get to know our products,” she says. “They came to our workshop looking for presents for loved ones. That’s when we started buying sewing machines.”
By the fifth year, the number of employees had grown and the shop was operating under the auspices of the Karya Insan Sejahtera Foundation. Ratna quit her office job to run the place.
It wasn’t easy changing people’s perceptions about products made by people with disabilities, she says. “They might buy something out of pity, but that’s something we discourage. We want to produce quality products while at the same time teaching people to appreciate the work the disabled. That’s what they need, not pity.”
To instil professionalism in the staff, Ratna teaches them to handle complaints by making changes until the product meets the customer’s expectations.
Piping, previously a brick worker and scavenger, was a quick learner despite having no sign-language skills, she says. “He used to skip work until we gave him a warning letter, and that was the turning point for him in understanding the meaning of responsibility.” |She also taught Piping to |save money for his two |children.
Ratna designs two new products every month. She’s noticed that many foundations for the disabled and their communities across Indonesia lack creativity in creating new items and can’t meet heavy demand. Creativity and productivity make Precious One a reliable supplier, and the friendly and safe environment in the workshop helps the employees feel at home. In case of emergency, there’s a lamp door alarm for the deaf employees and a bell for those who can hear.
P-One also runs a programme providing interaction between hearing people and the staff. A prestigious private school brings its students in to meet the employees.
Ratna’s dream is to move to bigger quarters and establish a place called “Rumah Inspirasi”, where people from outside Jakarta can visit the staff. She believes interaction is the key to bridging the communication gap between the hearing and the hearing-impaired.
“In our daily lives we get to know few people with hearing impairments, so I hope, with this programme, that hearing people will start to understand what it’s like to be impaired and stop mocking them.”
This source first appeared on The Nation Life.