As we are preparing for the LAST two Repair Café sessions in Kaikohe for the year 2023 we would like to share a bit more background and foreground to this awesome 'kaupapa' today.
But before I get into it let me put the announcement image up into this blog - and we all would like you to share this far and wide and near and beyond. As it says: Repair Café is a 'movement' and this is an invitation for you to become an important part of it.
BEBINGER: In the Netherlands, where repair cafes started, organizers estimate that 2,600 cafes worldwide keep about half a million items out of landfills every year. It's a drop in the bucket. But Volfson, one of the Framingham organizers, says repair cafes could help shift our throwaway culture.
VOLFSON: The society we're in is all driven on, like, digging more things up out of the Earth, turning them into products, and then sending them to a landfill as fast as we can. That doesn't seem like a good plan if you think of us living on a finite ball called the Earth because you'll eventually run out of things to dig up and places to throw them."
Check out what else they have to say by clicking on the link below.
Repair Café has become a world wide organisation and I invite you to watch the little video on top of this link: it made me SO happy to see the young man's astonishment about how "this guy just took the whole machine apart and it is now fixed." It also shows what a super busy Repair Café can look like and the kind of community it creates!
We 've got a wee bit to go there and with YOUR HELP we'll get a whole lot busier in 2024.
So, as we wrap up 2023, let's celebrate the last two sessions of the "Kaikohe Repair Café'.
A whole year has flown by since it made its debut in Kaikohe ( it was a daring move to take it from a super buzzing hub in Paihia to a complete new venue ) and we couldn't be more grateful to all the helpers, supporters, visitors, and behind-the-scenes contributors who made it all happen.
Together, we've saved so many items from ending up in landfill, brought back happy memories by fixing beloved treasures, and sparked some amazing ideas. Plus, we've grown a tribe of like-minded folks who share our passion for this kaupapa!
If we've inspired even just a handful of people to consider repairng over throwing away, learn new skills, or spend mindfully, then we've done our job. Most importantly, we hope to inspire folks to embrace the old ways while welcome new tools and innovations.
Seriously, how absolutely cool was the story of the Kitchen machine whose broken part ended up being 3D printed and the whole thing could finally be used again !
There are many success stories we could share - and you'll get a good idea of it on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/KaikoheRepairCafe
So, for now, we'll simply say a massive 'Thank you' to everyone who made the Repair Café a neat little 'hit' in Kaikohe. We all know there's many more people that can be reached for both, volunteering AND for bringing in their broken stuff and have us "Fix it".
We can't fix everything - seem to get stuck when it comes to sewing machines and broken hearts LOL - but we for sure will give it a try.
And remember the little video clip of "Mrs Brown from the Pioneer Village " wanting to have her baking utensils and bellows for her fire place fixed? It's still a very cool little video to enjoy - here it is https://www.facebook.com/reel/230656473123101
Over time there have been oodles of time credits exchanged - I'll get round to collecting some more stories over the next months about how these time credits were used.
Like the Repair Café your TimeBank is as amazing as YOU make it - the sky's the limit!
See you next Saturday and on the last Saturday of November !
Ngā mihi aroha,
Barbara
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