Danke schon Repair Cafe Bremen

So, you are the surprise guest expected today said Barnd at the cycle repair workstation. 

This repair workshop organized today (16th April ,2014)at Cafe Karton is one of the repair cafes in Bremen(Germany) which started 2 years ago as a college project and now carried forward as a professional workshop explained Justus , one of the organizers. It is organized once in 2 months and on 3rd Saturdays of the month. In fact , there are 2 other repair cafes and one of them charges for registration. "We are careful not to clash dates with them" informs Justus.

How does this one work?
"We design our own posters and will evolve our own processes as per the experience at the workshop and depends on how it grows. As far as the documentation is concerned we are recording the figures carefully in the system and we will figure out later how to interpret it" informs Max another organizer.

"Today's workshop has stations ie., Personal Computer, Clothes, Electronics, and Bicycles. Since morning about 14 visitors have come for Repairs" says Kalle another organizer. Electronics seems to have a long queue of Repairs to be done.

It is interesting to note that in such a span of time they have been able to gather a very impressive team of repair volunteers who contribute their services purely for the love of it. The sewing workstation is managed by Maxie, a student and a researcher in  environmental psychology. She had learned stitching from her mother and carries her sewing machine & tool box to the cafe, she lives close by. So how did she get involved? She replies, that she came to get her lamp repaired and was convinced of the idea so much so, that  decided to volunteer for it. Today since morning she is able to do patches for jeans and now, as the afternoon wore on she was overwhelmed with more clothes coming for repair. 

Barnd who is managing the cycle workstation is a librarian by profession and learnt cycle repairing all by himself. Learning by doing...He says he has documented every step of learning to repair in a book format. He is quick to observe that, you can pay 10 times more for a high-end cycle than a normal cycle but quality will not be guaranteed at 10 times better. This is so true for a consumer items in present times.The electric workstation was managed by Thomas who is an Electrical engineer and a researcher in the university. He pursues repairing as his favourite pass time. In fact he has kept an array of spares for repairs at the workshop. He gives them for free.
Last but definitely not the least the manager of the Cafe Karton, Timo is  passionate about serving community and thus gives his space for various community based activities like Repair Cafe, Dancing classes and teaching classes for differently- abled People. So guys next time you are at Bremen don't forget to visit this Cafe on Am Diech Street just by the river.

I am convinced that repair cafes are growing to be one of the powerful movements of our times, so please come forward and donate for any repair cafe near you and support them to sustain it ..
Repair if you care for the world.

(Disclaimer- the views expressed in this article are personal views only)

Repair Story #1

From the beginning of repair café, we had the privilege of meeting and interacting with many wonderful people. A whole new world opened up to us. Purna & I caught up with Manjunath whose story fascinated us. In the humdrum of life in the city, some people stay with you forever for their belief in themselves. This is one such story. 

Manjunath worked at Subway as a manager. He had studied till 10^th standard and was lucky to be hired by one of the multi-national companies. His family was proud of his job and Manjunath’s income was more than his peers.

But Manjunath was not happy. He found his job stressful and was thinking of other career paths. A chance trip to a BBMP solid waste collection center changed everything. His father had a shoe repair shop and Manjunath saw potential to restart it. 

Without giving out any information back home, Manjunath reopened the small cubical and started working there. He had picked up mending by his father’s side as a child. He was an expert mender.  He had another special skill as a child; he could make any old shoe new by cleaning or polishing it. He understood how to handle materials be it leather, canvas or rexine and know how to care for them in order to give them a new lease of life.  

His trips to BBMP dry waste collection center got him bags full of shoes to repair, clean, wash and renew.

He started selling them. He soon found out he had a steady steam of buyers. He also figured that a lot came to him to get their shoe renewed. As we chatted with him, he had a big grin on his face. His small makeshift workplace by the tree is also the place where he meets his friends while he works with his very limited supply of tools which he said was enough for him. He has a lot of friends who are his repeat customers. He told us he is earning much more than his previous job. He reluctantly showed us his old ID card - his folks back at home still believe he worked there.

Much money gets pumped into conferences and delegations where a global stance on closed-loop economy is debated and discussed. Lobbyists from all over the world meet to discuss how the global problem of a liner industry system can be solved. Amidst all this, here in Bangalore we have Manjunath who is working out a way ahead for millions of us locally. 

E. F. Schumacher in his book ‘small is beautiful’ repeatedly said that localized solutions are the only way out for the global crisis industrialization has caused.  

 I am sharing a quote from his book here.

"Ever bigger machines, entailing ever bigger concentrations of economic power and exerting ever greater violence against the environment, do not represent progress: they are a denial of wisdom. Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology towards the organic, the gentle, the non-violent, the elegant and beautiful."

REWABE - RC workshop a success!

Yesterday, we had an exciting day at Milton park Cooke town Bangalore, REWABE (resident welfare association Bangalore East) hosted us in their sustainability market.
It was very encouraging to see hosts of people participating in all sorts of sustainability initiative.
Our team consisted of Nerris and Venkat ( Electronics) Ramaraju (Jewelry) Zaid (Stitching) Sridhar (Cycle) and volunteer Megha.
We had over 25 registrations and some items that people threw away got a relook and kept aside for a tinker in our next cafe.
Here are some pictures of the event!

Celebrating Science in everyday life.

On 27th Feb, Repair cafe is celebrating Science Day, we are having experts from ISPF.
Children abv. 6 yr are welcome!

Repairing household equipments

Steadily but surely, our households are filled with small electronic gadgets which are meant for medical check-ups. from a simple wt. machine to electronic thermometer, no one's sure what can be done if they become dysfunctional.
Thermometer contains small amount of mercury and discarding them is hazardous proposition.

Repair cafe have a team of repair experts in the field of medical equipments and lab equipments.
So, next time you give a thought to what can be done to your old wt. scale that do not work....come by to repair cafe and reclaim!

Our workshops in Feb

Repair Cafe - 1st workshop in MG road

We made a film of our first workshop, our volunteers Shreyas and Pratigna helped us put it together.

Repair Cafe in India

Welcome to Repair Cafe Bangalore.
 Our Objectives:
1. Connect the lost skill of repair with everyone. The idea is to collaborate with local bodies and organize repair cafe workshops.
2. To give a platform to repairers in the city and spread awareness about repair as sustainable solution to reduce waste and reuse consumer durables.
3. To connect segments of society who are in need of seconds and help them avail it. (mostly consumer durables)
4. Organize workshops with opportunity for skill sharing, and awareness about - Reuse, Recycle, Repair.

We look forward to a great Journey ahead. We also look forward to meet interesting people build an incredible community of repairers, volunteers and partnering with social sectors.