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Sowing the seeds for a fruitful future

Amanda Fisher / 8 June 2013 Toiling away under the steaming sun, the uniformed men at Desert Group nursery are a little different than the usual employee found labouring in the country. Firstly, they seem remarkably happy, laughing and joking with each other as they go about their tasks. Secondly, they are primarily Emirati. But the most striking thing about this team of 36 is that they are all intellectually disabled.

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Of the 36 up from nine when the programme and company started in 2006 10 have Downs Syndrome. Another four employees with hearing impairments work in the main office. Desert Group was set up by the father of the companys Corporate Social Responsibility manager Reem Saeed Al Ghaith, Saeed Al Ghaith, Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs, who retired from politics in 2005.

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He used to be an advocate for funding people with special needs and wanted to continue doing that in his private capacity, Al Ghaith said of her father. Agriculture was deemed to be a good working environment, the company was established, and one of the countrys most unique special needs rehabilitation programmes began.

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The company was really committed to the programme becoming a national entity, she said, with the hopes more companies across the country would follow suit. Desert Group does landscaping, water features and golf courses amongst other things, but the special needs staff just work in the nursery with the plants, in three different areas.

At supermarket s

(Our nursery) caters to 50 per cent of the UAEs Two superm arkets in the country are to soon begin market for trees and plants ... so (this is) the perfect selling four ty pes of v egetables grown by the intellectually disabled staff at Desert Group, with place.

If the staff, all-male and between the ages of 19 and 38, have any problems during the day, the company If the tie-up prov ed successful, it was hoped m ore organises special one-on-one sessions to help them people with intellectual disabilities potentially hundreds would begin to grow and sell v egetables. increase levels of cooperation and interact better. The measure of success, Al Ghaith said, was to see their staff go up the ranks. The most basic working group fill plastic pots with fertilister; the second group does the seeding and planting; while the third group will offload the plants and transport them around the nursery, requiring them to recognise the different plants. Each group is a bit more difficult than the other and they have to have a bit more of a higher level skill to do that task.
The m ain idea is for others with intellectual disabilities to find jobs which is v ery difficult, so we said Okay , why not create that lev el of independence where they can own their own business? The plan would work for the staff to grow v egetables and sell them through Desert Group to the retailers, with all the returns to go back to the staff. The concept had been in the woodwork since last Decem ber, she said. Staff already working there had been giv en plots to grow v egetables. The special needs (staff) can really do it by them selv es. We hav e plans where they hav e their

profits to go directly to the staff m em bers, Al Ghaith said.

Those staff who became really proficient were even own nam es and packet for ev ery line they re growing. up to the standard of serving customers who came It giv es them a sense of ownership. to the main nursery outlet, located in Mirdif, she The idea was to open an agricultural rehabilitation said. They can go up, with a shadow (staff member), to a customer and serve him ... some of the customers will come and ask for one (staff member) specifically. They wont want to deal with anyone else ... our target is to increase the sales number and we know realistically we cant put them all into this group, but at least we aim to increase it or to take people from a low level to a graduate level. However, while they would like to move some of the employees into sales roles, it was difficult, she said. Some people dont know how to deal with an intellectually disabled person, to be frank with you ... to create inclusion within work always has challenges with employees and if its retail with customers, its not always successful given the level of awareness. One employee who had been tried out in sales did not have the support of his management, and never made any sales - supervision was a must, she said. http://khaleejtimes.ae/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/infocus/2013/June/infocus_June8.xml&section=infocus
centre this y ear or next y ear, where any one with an intellectual disability could receiv e training and business links to grow their own produce on their own land, and then sell directly to the superm arkets, Al Ghaith said. Our v ision is to open up the door to em ploy m ent to other people with disabilities, especially intellectual disabilities ... which is the m ost difficult segm ent to hire. amanda@khaleejtimes.com

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4/23/2014 Sowing the seeds for a fruitful future - Khaleej Times never made any sales - supervision was a must, she said.

The staff are overseen by two supervisers and two administrators, and each day their performances are evaluated on a progress chart. We can see an employee, where is he (struggling) and where is he excelling. The biggest problems the nursery saw with the staff, Al Ghaith said, was when they did not feel like interacting with colleagues or superiors. The main thing with (people with) Downs Syndrome or intellectual disabilities is they can be stubborn and sometimes they dont want to work. Desert Groups special education specialist Ibrahim Ali is one of the two men charged with taking care of the welfare of the special needs staff. He said the jobs gave the mens lives structure and a sense of normality. They go outside, they go to work, they go to restaurants. Its normal. Theres so much development. Ali, who has been working with the men for three years, said most of the staff were pleased to be there. One of the workers, who is recently married to a normal woman, has been part of the UAEs paralympics swimming team. Theyre very active, they like the work. The gardening and planting is very good, they dont need too much development for that, they all like planting, flowers, the smell of the flowers...its safe. Learning to count, memorising plants, learning to water and take care of them and meeting customers were all tasks within their capabilities, Ali said. There were, however, the odd rifts amongst staff, with those with similar disabilities tending to club together - some dont like to talk to others. But Ali said he had seen great strides in most. They feel ... a significance for what they do and they feel happy. All of them understand now the meaning of the work and they respect others. 27-year-old Uday Pradeep has been working at the nursery for four years, putting out plants. I like to (work with) flowers and anything to do with flowers, Pradeep said, noting his favourite plants were petunias and lemon trees. The Indian national, who has five sisters and two brothers and lives with his parents, has big dreams. He said he was saving up the money he made to cultivate his own garden, though he did spend some of his wages on flowers and juice and sometimes I drink a beer, also. He said he felt good at his job and enjoyed working with the other staff members. The programme had been recognised through awards such as the Princess Haya Award and the Sharjah Voluntary Award, while a British University PhD student had studied the results of the programme, which proved very positive, and were published in an academic journal. However, Al Ghaith acknowledged there was room for improvement including more inclusion with the other employees, rather than the segregated staff quarters which currently existed. However, Al Ghaith said the staff were treated as any other employee, being paid the same wage of about Dh4,500 a month, with the same benefits such as medical check-ups and daily breakfast. The company also arranges training for staff, such as health and safety and first aid courses. Interns from special needs centres around Dubai often come in for work experience, with a view to gaining full-time employment where there were vacancies, Al Ghaith said. But it was not all one way traffic, Al Ghaith said, with unexpected financial benefits coming their way since they started the programme. We did not realise the benefits to us till the last couple of years ... because weve proved the (success) of this programme, we get the Ministry of Labour giving us encouragement and support. That support included certain payment exemptions, while there were also corporate customers who wanted to work specifically with the company because of the work being done. amanda@khaleejtimes.com For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes, and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes
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