Visually challenged youth work as masseurs at a spa
Jan 30, 2009, CNN-IBN.|
Mumbai: He can't see, but that hasn't stopped Anand Rai from earning a living as a foot masseur. Twenty-four-year-old Anand is one of the seven visually challenged employees at Metta, a foot spa in
Mumbai's Bandra area that employs only specially-abled people like him.
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| “Everything depends on a job. Whatever I ear right now will help in my future,” Anand said.
Owner of Metta, Joanita Figuerido, came up with the unique idea, while she was training students at the National Association for the Blind. She set up Metta because these blind masseurs were unable to get jobs elsewhere despite their skill. "I used to take them to various beauty parlours and spas but they did not employ them. So I decided I will open up for them,” Joanita said. |
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Just one month into its opening and the spa is already gaining fame. "They are very good. They don't have eyes, but they are very good with their hands,” a spa regular Carmen said. Metta is just the first step in the professional lives of these visually challenged masseurs, most of them now want to open their own spas in the city. |
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