The Belarusian wheelchair barista 'making the world better'

Barista Olya makes coffee during the opening of the coffee house `Inclusive Barista`, the first cafe in Poland with a workspace fully adapted for employees in wheelchairs, in Warsaw on April 7, 2024. Pic/AFP

With its sleek interior and freshly ground coffee, the cafe run by Belarusian exile Sasha Avdevich may at first glance seem like yet another trendy spot in Warsaw.

But the lowered, wheelchair-accessible countertop and a sticker reading: "The barista on shift has a hearing impairment" in Polish, English and Belarusian reveal this is no ordinary business.

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Avdevich, himself a wheelchair user, founded the first "Inclusive Barista" coffee shop while still in Belarus and quickly shot to fame as a disability campaigner in the country controlled with an iron fist by strongman President Alexander Lukashenko.

The 40-year-old activist took part in the unprecedented mass protests that swept Belarus after a 2020 election slammed by rights groups as fraudulent.

As Lukashenko brutally cracked down on dissent, Avdevich knew he had to flee.

"A lot of people called me back then and said, 'Sasha, if you don't want to end up in a coffin, leave the country,'" he told media.

He recounted the Covid pandemic-era journey that saw him flee to Georgia initially, then travel on to the Canary Islands before applying for international protection in France.

He eventually moved to Poland, now home to tens of thousands of fellow Belarusians, who, like Avdevich, fled the repression.

"There are many migrants with disabilities," Avdevich said.

Rap battle, speed dating

As he settled in Warsaw, Avdevich launched barista training for people in wheelchairs, threw festivals where the trainees brewed coffee from specially adapted carts, and began to draw up plans for his first cafe in Poland.

When he found a commercial space suited to people with disabilities, close to his flat and in the city's increasingly popular Praga district, Avdevich and his business partner decided to give it a shot.

"We had money for three months of rent, and we were like: 'Come on, whatever happens, we'll do it,'" he said.

Opened in April, the cafe hires people with various disabilities as well as migrants, not only from Belarus.

The founders said they want their cafe to be as "international" and inclusive as possible.

"We recently organised a rap battle, we will organise a speed dating event soon," Avdevich said.

The cafe is also launching an inclusive DJing school.

Avdevich lost the use of his legs when he broke his back in a motorbike accident in 2011.

"There's no surgery for this type of disability... it's not possible to walk again, even if I was Bill Gates," Avdevich laughed.

Shortly after the accident he said he told himself "OK, I'm alive. What can I do? I have working arms.

"And now we're here, in our coffee shop, making this world better."

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