COCINA MITHO CHHA
ABOUT US
What do we do...
Association Nepal Aki - Cocina Mitho Chha is a Social Enterprise that has been established with the purpose of educating the youth in Nepal. We offer scholarships to young people from different backgrounds, such as children from orphanages, mountains, and those who come from low-income families in Nepal, so that they gain the opportunity for a better future. All funds to support the running of the school and the scholarships are raised from our BNB, our restaurant, our local Nepali food cooking classes we offer to our guests, and the training fees from fee-paying students.
Our school at Cocina Mitho Chha offers training programs within the hospitality sector, including hotel management, cooking, baking, bartending, food and beverage service, barista, housekeeping, front-office, and hospitality English courses. We also offer language programs, which includes Spanish, Japanese and Chinese. We do have long and short courses varying from two weeks to one year. Our students can choose the course according to their interests.
OUR STORY
A Brief History
The project started around twenty years ago, when a group of concerned people from Catalonia formed a group Association Nepal Aki (ANA) to raise funds to sponsor the education of Nepalese. There is a long history of Catalans and Spanish people adopting children from Nepalese orphanages, which ANA came to understand, using this knowledge to develop a project that would support and educate children, particularly vulnerable and with a poor background.
Nepal´s economy is based on subsistence farming and small industries. Yet by far the biggest growing sector of the economy is tourism. It seemed then, to ANA, that training young people to work in the service sector would arm them with the skills to find work anywhere from small family cafés to five star hotels, locally as well as globally. Training and experience are the keys to finding long term employment and gaining an independent lifestyle.
ANA volunteers raised money from membership donations and fundraising events in Catalonia to open a training school based in a self sustaining restaurant and residency to offer children and orphans training and scholarships.
WHAT WE WANT WITH THIS PROJECT
Our Objective and Our Aim
Our objective is to empower the youth through education, by providing them with a variety of different skills within the tourism and hospitality industry. Our professional and experienced teachers will train and guide them as well as continue to support them with job placements within the tourism sectors in Nepal.
Our aim is to help the youth to develop as individuals and further their career, by improving their skills, giving them the needed confidence for their future, and helping them to be placed in welcoming surroundings within the hospitality industries (such as hotels and cafes), through our training program.
THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE
Our Mission
Cocina Mitho Chha established a small bed and breakfast and restaurant to generate income for our hospitality school. We want to provide students with action-oriented skills, and a better future. The bed and breakfast and restaurant are located in the same area as our hospitality school, which we find is very important and helpful. This concept lets the students to intermingle with our guests, letting them learn and gain experience through real interactions within a safe and suitable environment. We have a beautiful green garden surrounding our accommodations and restaurant area, a coffee shop, parking, an office, a classroom, a fully equipped kitchen, and a bakery unit. We value hygiene and food safety a lot at CMC and try to teach this to our students as well, since this is a large problem in Kathmandu. Our place is located in the middle of Kathmandu, making it easily accessible for students and guests. We also have a souvenir shop, selling all handmade and organic products ranging from bracelets and postcards, to rice and herbs, with profits going to the individuals and local farms. Our restaurant features an art gallery, supporting local artists, and at the back of our building we have a small garden, where we grow our own vegetables, salads and herbs. We’re trying to make our place as green as possible, making sure to pay close attention to recycling, reusing of products, as well as making our own compost from our kitchen waste to fuel our vegetable garden. Sustainability is very important to us, even using solar water heaters. Children are really important for our future because they are the future of the world. The way we shape our children is the way we shape our world. It is important that we educate our children well so that they have a good future ahead of them. It is our job to do that and that’s why we founded our training program.
Our aim for the future is to grow our project, and grow as a community. Increasing our network of students, donors, volunteers and employees. We hope that through future donations, we are able to expand and provide more students with an education and job opportunities, expanding not only our horizon but also the one of our future generation.
And maybe one day in the future, we are able to fulfil our dream of becoming our own complete, teaching hotel, providing education to people all around Nepal.
