The delicious aroma of baking hits you when you enter Ausome Bites’ production unit. In this house, tucked away in a corner of Unnichira near Edappally, six people with autism, with help from their mothers, bake cookies, brownies, muffins, cupcakes and an occasional batch of vegetable puffs. What started out as ‘assignments’ over an Autism Club WhatsApp group during the pandemic to keep children busy is now a two-year old fledgling business that empowers them and gives them a sense of purpose.
“Apart from helping Vaishnav get trained in a vocation and inculcating self reliance, this will help him with being independent; the salary is also a big boost for the kids,” says Vaishnav’s mother, Vidya Kuttikat, a special educator. She, along with the mothers of Aakash Sanjay, Sohan Bijo, Brian Varghese Pradeep, Sam Varghese and Antony Eby, spends production days with the boys at the unit. Their ages range from 18 to 30 years.
Work has been hectic at the unit this month, with orders coming in from companies across Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. While exhibitions, flea markets and pop-ups form a chunk of their sales, they also retail out of a couple of supermarkets and cater [on a small scale] for private events. One such event led to an order for a batch of brownies and cookies travelling overseas. There is also a website through which online orders can be placed.
