Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

Mo­hammed’s Book­store As­so­ciates Lim­it­ed has opened the coun­try’s first “in­clu­sive” book­store.

Speak­ing at the grand open­ing of the com­pa­ny’s sixth branch lo­cat­ed along the West­ern Main Road in Co­corite yes­ter­day, Ameer­ah Mo­hammed, daugh­ter of the com­pa­ny’s founder Ted­dy Mo­hammed, said that the store will seek to cater to cus­tomers with learn­ing and phys­i­cal dis­abil­i­ties.

Mo­hammed said: “Ed­u­ca­tion is not a one size fits all...Why should we re­strict per­sons who see the world dif­fer­ent­ly from the ac­cept­ed norm from a place where they may feel com­fort­able?”

She added, “In­clu­sive in this con­text means cre­at­ing a space where per­sons who be­long to cer­tain mi­nor­i­ty groups, such as per­sons with learn­ing dis­abil­i­ties, neu­ro­log­i­cal dis­or­ders, and even Venezue­lan mi­grants, can feel a sense of com­mu­ni­ty.”

She not­ed that the store will fea­ture signs in Braille for per­sons who are vi­su­al­ly im­paired, and sen­so­ry walks for per­sons with autism, as well as books and signs in Span­ish.

“Let’s not for­get there has been an in­flux of Venezue­lan mi­grants and these peo­ple should feel wel­comed in every space they en­ter,” she said.

In her fea­ture ad­dress, Mo­hammed al­so gave a heart­felt syn­op­sis of her fa­ther’s jour­ney in start­ing the now-suc­cess­ful busi­ness.

She ex­plained that he was forced to drop out of school at age 14, as his par­ents could not af­ford the then tu­ition for sec­ondary ed­u­ca­tion.

She said he got a job as a clean­er at a pop­u­lar book­store in San Fer­nan­do and was quick­ly pro­mot­ed to a man­age­r­i­al po­si­tion based on his hard work and nat­ur­al sales abil­i­ty. He even­tu­al­ly left the com­pa­ny to start his own in 1974, with the help of a loan from his broth­er.

In his emo­tion­al ad­dress, the el­der Mo­hammed thanked his fam­i­ly and loy­al staff for his suc­cess.

“With­out you, we would not be here to­day,” he said.

The book­store is housed in a mul­ti-lev­el shop­ping com­plex owned by the com­pa­ny, which is named af­ter Mo­hammed’s daugh­ter. It is ex­pect­ed to fea­ture sev­er­al oth­er stores as well as a rooftop bar with a sweep­ing view of the sea.