Magazine

Cervo, Sustainability

Stiftung Atelier Manus – wer wir sind

13.04.2022

Atelier Manus is a private foundation for the promotion of the professional and social integration of people with disabilities. We are pleased to count the foundation in Brig-Glis among our valued partners. At CERVO, guests can buy various products that are made in the Atelier. We also support the foundation by regularly sending them candle remnants from the entire hotel, which serve as raw material for further products.

Christian Escher, the managing director, will be happy to tell you more about the Atelier.

Manus originates from the Latin and means hand. Manus is for us the symbol of: Craft, support, protection, work.

Our motto is: As much support as necessary, as little as possible.

Appreciation, valuable work, the greatest possible autonomy of each individual are key factors in our daily work. We strive for the highest possible degree of normalization and accordingly the effective and full participation of our employees with disabilities is very important to us.

Our core mission is to offer valuable and appreciative work to people with disabilities - who do not get a chance in the general labor market.

We are a service company with 13 departments and 187 employees (92 women and 95 men). As a result, we have a broad and diverse range of high-quality products, services and jobs. 

I would like to invite you, the reader, to learn some facts and figures about our company and be amazed:

- over 2.4 million parts were packed in our assembly department

- in the digitalization department we scanned more than 130 tons of paper and processed several thousand photos and slides

- in the weaving department we wove more than 25 km of fabric

- the wood sculpting workshop has produced more than 3,000 Christmas stars in different variations

- the small carpentry workshop has produced at least 9'000 items

- at www.cafe-weri.ch, more than 30 different employees have already gained experience in the catering industry

- our laundry service has processed more than 30'000 kg of laundry

- our gardeners load and unload their pick-up trucks about 26 times a day

- last year we produced more than 43'000 pallets, which is more than the height of Mount Kilimanjaro when stacked.- das Team der Brockenstube hat mindestens 110 Tonnen Möbel und Material, sowie 13'500 Geschirrteile zur Wiederverwendung abgeholt und zusätzliche 166 Tonnen Sperrmüll entsorgt

- we have packed and mailed over a million letters, often with up to 6 inserts

- in our division www.glen.ch we have produced handmade menus and wine lists for the best hotels and restaurants in Switzerland

These are impressive figures. They show what our employees with disabilities are capable of achieving, provided that the environment is right and they receive the individual support they need. As Managing Director, it makes me enormously proud to be able to help shape such a beautiful and important company. The many encounters and the individual stories of our employees make Atelier Manus what it is; an integration company with heart and room for individualism.

In 50 years, those responsible have managed to create a place where individual solutions are possible for employees and for customers - indeed, it is one of our specialties.

For some time now, we have been facing a new, big change. Disability politics changed a lot at the moment. In particular, the ratification of the UN CRPD (2014) gave this process of change in Switzerland a new dynamic.

In this context, we now hear terms like: Inclusion and Participation.

I would like to explain briefly what is meant by this and why it concerns all of us, not only institutions like Atelier Manus.

Inclusion

Inclusion means that everyone belongs naturally. No matter what you look like, what language you speak, or if you have a disability. Everyone can participate. When everyone can be part of everything, at work, at home, or in their free time: that's inclusion.

When everyone can be involved, it's normal to be different. And everyone benefits: for example, if there are fewer stairs, people with strollers, older people and people with disabilities can be much better at being included. In an inclusive world, everyone is open to other ideas. If you don't know something, it's not better or worse. It is normal! Every person should be accepted as he or she is.

There is a good illustration for this, which especially explains the difference between integration and inclusion.

Participation: means "a person's being included in a life situation or area." If you are an active part of a social whole, you are participating.

Being-part: means the non-discriminatory recognition of minorities, individual diversity and personal life orientation as well as social inclusion, i.e. the aspect of belonging to society as a whole.

Part-having: asks about the real access possibilities to the labor market, to education, to adequate housing, to social contacts outside the care system, to participation in social and cultural offerings, etc.

Part-taking: is the invitation and opportunity to take on the role of a citizen in a committed manner, to use the power to shape and opportunities to help determine the living conditions in one's own living environment and to enrich them with one's own ideas and actions.

Part-giving: this means that it is not just a matter of 'having' and 'taking', but also of 'giving back'. Thus, every member of a society should contribute his or her own skills and competencies to shaping social coexistence.

The concept of participation is multi-layered and complex, and its content is not self-evident for people with disabilities. For participation to be experienced at all, it is essential to have unrestricted access to all cultural, social, political and legal dimensions of social life. Only in this way can people with disabilities experience participation not only in disability-specific special settings. Unrestricted access to the social environment must be guaranteed.

These concepts are important and Switzerland has committed itself to their implementation with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. As a foundation, we are therefore called upon to make our contribution and offer our employees as much participation as possible. This is a big and important task, which we are happy to take on.

Would you like to learn more about us and our foundation? Then come and visit us. We will be happy to show you around our facility - you are guaranteed to be amazed.

https://atelier-manus.ch/

www.cervo.swiss
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