The year 2000 opened its doors in Rome the Gunshot restaurant. Apparently, it is a pizzeria like any other of the hundreds that exist in the Italian capital. But this pizzeria has a characteristic that makes it different from all the others and makes it unique: all its waiters suffer from Down syndrome.
The sunflower was born with the aim of offering a diet that would leave its customers satisfied, but also with the desire to provide disabled people the opportunity to work in a friendly environment. It was inaugurated by relatives of people with this syndrome, who gathered to found a project that gave work to their children. All waiters receive a salary, and work on average four days a week. Their work gives them a lot of autonomy and satisfaction, since it allows them to do homework. The possibility of helping workers integration is, of course, a key element for customers who frequently come to eat at the restaurant. Such has been the success of Sunflower that its owners already plan to open another branch soon.
Without a doubt, this is a fantastic initiative that shows that we all have our space in this world. And it is not about thinking that people with Down syndrome (or other disabilities) are also normal people; That would be too short. The Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso said once that "closely, nobody is normal." And he was absolutely right. Anyone who knows a little (his hobbies, his oddities, his humor changes, his strange tastes, his unconfessable fantasies) can honestly affirm that he is a normal person?
It is, therefore, to encourage our own "abnormality", to feed what makes us unique. Because closely, no one is normal.
