Uniquease

A glimpse into Uniquease

Fair trade stand at Uniquease

Jason Giberari, chef at Uniquease

Yachiyo Nurakami, founder and general manager of Uniquease

Rhea De Los Reyos, customer service assistant at Uniquease

Uniquease restaurant on a quiet afternoon

Uniquease restaurant offers Filipino children from underprivileged backgrounds a second chance in life

Food loving Metro Manila is home to a multitude offast food outlets and American franchises mostly offering quick and easy food on the go. Carving a niche in this fast food culture, Uniquease is a restaurant that not only goes against the trend by offering healthy fusion Japanese/Filipinofood but also uses its position as a business to give back to Filipino society.

Ms Yachiyo Nakamura came to the Philippines in 2006 when given an opportunity to work with children at a locally based NGO. As her work continued, she enjoyed being able to provide educational support to these children in need but was getting frustrated that the help she was providing wasn’t offering a sustainable solution to these children.

“Often if people don’t have enough funds they will end up trying to sell something on the street or begging which creates a new problem so social enterprise is the next step,” said Nakamura. With an entrepreneurial background, she decided to break from her NGO job and set up a business with the primary aim of helping underprivileged youths in Manila.In August 2010, she opened Uniquease (pronounced Uni-kase; a play on English and Tagalog words created by her staff to mean ‘because we are unique’). Through her previous connections with local NGO’s such as SALT and ICAN she recruited and trained several youths who came from impoverished communities such as Payatas and the former Smokey Mountain.

Health food focus

Nakamura decided on focusing on healthy food after seeing what was already on offer in the Filipino food and beverage scene. “We visited almost 200 restaurants and found that there are not many restaurants offering healthy food. It’s mostly fast food, family restaurants and American franchises. Then we discovered maybe we could focus on the health mainly because we the number one health concern here is heart attack since a lot of people eat mostly unhealthy food,” said Yachiyo.

The food started off being macrobiotic, consisting mostly of whole unprocessed foods such as grains and beans. However after realizing that a steady flow of customers would not be sustained by offering this strict type of food, Yachiyo steered her menu into a more general healthy food selection.

Jason Giberari, 22 years old was one of the youths employed from the beginning of the restaurant. At the age of 7,Giberari was walking down the street with his parents. He stopped to look at something and when he looked back he had lost his parents in a sea of pedestrians. That was the last time he saw them. Since then he’s spent his time between orphanages and NGO’s. Now in his second year working as a chef at Uniquease restaurant, he can finally say he has the stability and independence to start thinking about and planning his future. “They trained me how to become independent and they’ve taught me how to become a working professional. My favourite part in working at Uniquease is that I can experiment with mam new dishes and we can announce it as a new product,” said Jason.

Twenty-one year old Rhea De Los Reyes works in customer service at the restaurant. With a constant smile on her face and unfailingly polite responses, her job is to deal with the customers as they come into the restaurant and liaise with the various NGO’s that sell products in their fair trade stand. At the age of 17, she had just graduated from a two year course in computer science when her father died leaving her mother and sisters without a source of income. She had to find a job immediately in order to be able to support the family. After working in various jobs, the NGO she was a beneficiary of; World Vision in Quezon City referred her to Uniquease. “For me the most valuable skill I’ve learnt while being here is communication. We’re meeting different customers. Before I was not good at English now I am and I can also speak a little bit of Japanese.In a way it’s changed my life,” said Rhea.

As well as being trained up in the basics of restaurant service and cooking, the youths are also given lectures on developing ambition, how to save and live independently. “Before I came here I didn’t have any idea what my future was. When I came here they told me I should make a plan for my future. At that time I was kind of childish- I was just focusing on money. I didn’t want to think about my future but now I’m thinking of my future five to ten years from now. I’m hoping in 10 years from now I will have a bakery which I can manage,” said Jason.

Rhea also has big ambitions to start up her own social enterprises following a similar model to Uniquease. “I really like this concept. I want to study marketing strategy or business management so I can start a business similar to Uniquease,” said Rhea.

Yachiyo not only offer a safe place to work, but a safe place to live as well. The youths can either choose to live independently or live with her.Jason who lives with Yachiyo used to rent a place in Makati. “It wasn’t nice; there were a lot of gangsters. One time I was talking to girls some people were chasing me and they beat me up one was holding a bat one was holding a stone. After that I had to call into the work saying I wouldn’t work for one week and after one week I came in with a big bandage and a broken arm. Now in my new place I feel safe,” he said.

Growing social enterprise scene

In the Philippines, social enterprises number around 30,000 people working in cooperatives, community-based enterprises, microfinance institutions, and small- and medium-scale industries. They promote organic products such as coffee, peanuts, rice, and sugar and innovative products such as bamboo delicacies, specially-made furniture, and herbal medicine.

At the recent Asian Development Bank's (ADB) Philippine Social Enterprise Forum Tommy Hutchinson, founder of i-genius, an international community of social entrepreneurs told the media that the Philippines has been near the forefront in social entrepreneurship in Asia not just because of the prevalence of so many social and environmental problems but because of its people. "They know how to make things and are producing real, social-based products which can be sold to earn income, and this is a sign of a healthy foundation. There is a lot of entrepreneurial talent, a lot of knowledge and awareness. And there is a strong sense of community," said Hutchinson.

Encouraging entrepreneurial spirit

Upon entering the restaurant,customers are faced withUniquease’s fair trade corner offering products made from livelihood projects of different NGO’s. As a side business, Yachiyo encourages entrepreneurism among her youths by allowing them a space to sell their own home made products not only in the restaurant’s store but in the bazaars the restaurant hold regularly.

“We sell products and we encourage them to have their own enterprise. The deal is 30 per cent goes to Uniquease and 70 per cent goes to them. I give them their own salary andan additionalmoney they make from the products they sell,” said Yachiyo.

Uniquease recently partnered with Manila Business College (MBC)’s KEI Program which aims to give underprivileged students access to education. The program offers an opportunity for students to study and earn at the same time and chosen students receive financial support to continue their studies while working at the restaurant.

“Our youth don’t have enough opportunity to go to university. I really want them to go to school that is the first aim. Right now we started a partnership with a college so three days they go to school and three days go to work per week. So they can do something better in the future,” said Yachiyo.

However, working with youths from so many different and often broken backgrounds isn’t without its challenges. “Everyday there are challenges working with underprivileged youths. For example, in the past two years I hired approximately 25 people. Among them five of them have become pregnant. They were very lonely they need to be loved by someone because they were kind of victim. Sometimes they failed to understand the real love,” said Yachiyo who is looking into hiring a social worker to provide emotional support for the youths.

Rhea had to stop working for around 8 months last March because she became pregnant. But she is now back on the job working full time while her 4 month old child is at home being looked after by the family. “At the time I was pregnant I could not focus on work. I was a little bit sensitive at the time. I’m glad I was given the chance to come back and work here,” she said.

According to Yachiyo, the hardest thing in a social enterprise is finding the balance making a business work and helping the youths. “Obviously we try to forgive them and accept them as they face many challenges in their situations, but sometimes you have to treat it as a business so if they don’t show up for three days without informing you, you do need to instil discipline. But we do try to give leeway. If we terminate the person easily we can’t see their growth. This is a kind of dilemma,” said Yachiyo.

Looking to the future

Two years on and the business has been growing slowly but steadily. While it hasn’t been as successful as the other comfort food chains, Nakamura does receive a steady flow of clientele. “This is still challenging for the Filipino culture; the number of Filipino customers has not been increased but there are more health concerned people,” said Yachiyo.

The restaurant will soon be moving location to near Bonafacio Global City in Manila where they are looking to train new staff and increase the size of their restaurant.

The most recent project Yachiyo has introduced is encouraging the youths that she works with the give back to the NGO’s that have nurtured them by talking to the youths there and giving them hope for the future. “The younger children from these NGO’s have a similar background. They’re also street children, trafficked children, abandoned children etc. They also don’t have hope. If my youths visit them, they will hopefully influence the other children into working hard with the possibility of working for a social enterprise like Uniquease,” said Yachiyo.