Johor café serves up jobs and hope for OKU community

Johor Bahru's ChiKopi café, owned by Ruzimi Mohamed and his wife Quratul Ain Hasanan, offers meaningful employment opportunities for members of the OKU (Orang yang Cabar, or Disable) community. The café's six employees include people with hearing impairments and wheelchair users, and most of the staff members are OKU. Ruzimi, who was born without both legs and one arm, started the café after his IT and mobile app development business and Quratul's kindergarten faced difficulties due to the pandemic.

The café's mission is to give individuals the chance to build confidence, skills, and independence while contributing to a sustainable business. The name ChiKopi combines "chicken" and "kopi" to represent its focus on chicken dishes and coffee. The café's menu includes popular items such as nasi lemak, nasi ayam gepuk, matcha strawberry, and longan latte.

Since its opening, the business has faced inconsistent sales, but traffic has begun to recover in the past two months. The couple aims to obtain halal certification and expand through a social-franchise model that requires at least 30% of the workforce to be comprised of OKU community members.