A new roof for the Salem Social Cafe in Kazakhstan

Sometimes it's helpful to take a step back and notice the things that have become normal. When the remarkable becomes unremarkable, that's a sure sign that genuine change has taken place.

Recently in the Salem Social Cafe, a young member of our World Without Limits social club for people with disabilities celebrated his 20th birthday. His name is Victor, and he's a talented and positive guy who loves drawing, is great at dancing, and spends lots of time in his favourite library at Salem Social Village.

We don't think of him as disabled; he's just one of our friends. We don't think of it as unusual that he got to celebrate his birthday among friends who respect and appreciate him; yet outside of our cafe, you wouldn't find that kind of thing going on anywhere else in the city. Those with disabilities of any kind are still largely shut away or marginalised, suffering the kind of discrimination that would horrify many in the West.

It's a great measure of progress when, for us at least, these things become normal - and that's how it should be.

Thanks for your support in helping us keep the cafe open and providing a unique place of welcome and interaction for everyone, no matter what society says about them.

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• Read this story on our website
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You know something's going well when it doesn't need much looking after any more.

For a long time, we ran English Conversation Club three times each week in our cafe, where a native English speaker facilitated conversation practice for local students. However, when we weren't able to continue it earlier this year due to staffing issues, we hadn't expeted that it would nonetheless continue.

Some of the students decided that even if we weren't able to organise anything, they would just get on and organise it themselves - and they do! Each time, one of them comes prepared with a topic for everyone to discuss, and they sit there having all sorts of debates and conversations, in English, even welcoming new-comers who turn up.

We've always had a vision for our cafe to be a place where a new kind of community is built - something where people feel welcomed, empowered, safe, and given the freedom to express themselves whilst discovering a new way of looking at the world. The decision of these students to keep coming, keep talking to each other, keep choosing our cafe to hang out in and practice English together, shows that this place is really taking off!

Last month we also welcomed a musical due from Almaty who performed at the birthday party for one of the members of World Without Limits, the social club for disabled people that meets in the cafe. Everyone had a lot of fun, as you can see from the photos! However, our cafe is still at risk until we can get a new roof on it. We still have a significant amount to raise in order to put the new roof on, which we'd really like to do this year.

Please consider whether there's anything that you or your friends could do to help us - we really don't want to be in a situation of having to close the cafe, just as things are really taking off.

With love from everyone at Salem Social Cafe, especially our friends and clients!

Links:

• Why we need your help to get a new roof on our cafe
• The latest from Salem Social Village