With its elegant interior and freshly ground coffee, the café run by exiled Belarusian Sasha Avdevich might at first glance seem like just another trendy meeting place in Warsaw.
But the lowered, wheelchair-accessible counter and a sticker reading “The barista on duty is hard of hearing” in Polish, English and Belarusian show that this is no ordinary shop.
Avdevich, himself a wheelchair user, founded the first “Inclusive Barista” café in Belarus and quickly rose to fame as an activist for the rights of people with disabilities in the country ruled with an iron fist by President Alexander Lukashenko.
The 40-year-old activist took part in the unprecedented mass protests that swept Belarus following the 2020 elections, which human rights groups called fraudulent.
When Lukashenko cracked down on dissidents, Avdevich knew he had to flee.
“Many people called me at the time and said: ‘Sascha, if you don’t want to end up in a coffin, then leave the country,'” he told AFP.
He described his journey during the Covid pandemic, which first took him to Georgia, then to the Canary Islands before he applied for international protection in France.
Eventually he moved to Poland, where tens of thousands of Belarusians now live who, like Avdevich, fled oppression.
“There are many migrants with disabilities,” said Avdevich.
– Rap Battle, Speed Dating –
After settling in Warsaw, Avdevich launched a barista training program for wheelchair users, hosted festivals where trainees made coffee on specially adapted carts, and began drawing up plans for his first cafe in Poland.
When he found a commercial space suitable for people with disabilities near his home and in the increasingly popular Praga district, Avdevich and his business partner decided to give it a try.
“We had money for three months’ rent and thought, ‘Whatever happens, we’ll do it,'” he said.
The café, which opened in April, employs people with various disabilities as well as migrants, not only from Belarus.
The founders said they wanted to make their cafe as “international” – and inclusive – as possible.
“We recently organized a rap battle and will soon organize a speed dating event,” said Avdevich.
The café is also opening an inclusive DJ school.
Avdevich lost the use of his legs when he broke his back in a motorcycle accident in 2011.
“There is no surgery for this type of disability… it is not possible to walk again, even if I were Bill Gates,” Avdevich laughed.
Shortly after the accident, he said to himself: “OK, I’m alive. What can I do? My arms work.”
“And now we are here, in our café, making the world a better place.”
mmp/dt/fg
