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A Repair Café is a free neighbourhood event where volunteers help people mend broken lamps, kettles, clothes and bikes. Things are fixed instead of thrown away, and owners learn repair skills along the way.

Repair Cafe movement

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The story behind the card

The first Repair Café was held in Amsterdam on 18 October 2009, organised by the Dutch journalist Martine Postma as a local sustainability project. It drew so many people that she set up a foundation to help others copy the idea, and there are now more than 2,500 Repair Cafés worldwide, from village halls to city libraries. Visitors bring a broken item and sit with a volunteer, such as an electrician, tailor or bike mechanic, to fix it together; the repair is free, though donations are welcome. Many cafés also record what came in and whether it could be fixed, building evidence about which products are hard to repair.

Türkçe oku
Repair Café, gönüllülerin bozuk lambaları, su ısıtıcılarını, giysileri ve bisikletleri onarmaya yardım ettiği ücretsiz bir mahalle buluşmasıdır. Eşyalar atılmak yerine tamir edilir, sahipleri de bu arada onarmayı öğrenir.

İlk Repair Café, 18 Ekim 2009'da Amsterdam'da toplandı. Hollandalı gazeteci Martine Postma bunu yerel bir sürdürülebilirlik projesi olarak düzenlemişti. İlgi o kadar büyük oldu ki Postma, başkalarının da bu fikri uygulayabilmesi için bir vakıf kurdu. Bugün dünyada 2.500'ü aşkın Repair Café var; köy salonlarında da, şehir kütüphanelerinde de toplanıyorlar. Ziyaretçi bozuk eşyasını getirir ve elektrikçi, terzi ya da bisiklet ustası gibi bir gönüllüyle birlikte onu tamir eder. Onarım ücretsizdir, bağış kabul edilir. Pek çok buluşma, gelen eşyaları ve tamir edilip edilemediklerini de kaydeder; bu kayıtlar hangi ürünlerin zor onarıldığını gösteren bir kanıta dönüşür.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Repair Café
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