Throwing things away is not an option, according to the students from Eindhoven’s Summa College. A faltering vacuum cleaner, a radio that doesn’t work anymore, and a broken drill- everything can be reused. That’s why they started a Repair Café in Geldrop, together with the recycling store Het Goed, among others.
The idea behind is that this is good for the environment, but also for social cohesion in the neighborhood.
The project will run until the end of the students’ school year. They are enthusiastic about the initiative, which they set up together with LEV group Geldrop-Mierlo. “Not only is it good for recycling stuff, but you also see young and old working together. It connects,” said student Bjorn.
Big miss
The Repair Café will be open weekly until the summer. Hilde Hess, the coordinator of the LEV group, hopes that other students will take over after that. Because: “The social cohesion that a place like this creates makes it special for me,” says Hess.
“The last Repair Café in Geldrop closed five years ago,” he says. “Since then we got a lot of calls saying ‘When is it coming again?’ or ‘Are you still doing it?'”, says Raymond Anthonijsz, manager at Het Goed. “There is enough demand for it, so I am very happy with this initiative.”
Source: Studio040
Translation: Chaitali Sengupta. She also gives online INBURGERING classes.
