A repair workshop organized at Casagrand Luxus, a community of 124 families located at Halehalli, was a resounding success, with over 70 residents availing the services provided at the workshop. “The workshop covered repairing items like umbrellas, garments, footwear, zipper, knives, and bicycles,” says Suresh Randadath, a resident who is an IT professional, adding that over 300 items got repaired at the workshop. Besides imparting skills, it familiarized the residents with some common tools used for repair. In a city where even electronic goods and furniture are delivered at lightning speed, why would one bother to get things repaired or mended? The answer is simple, but thought-provoking. “It is easy to get rid of something that is broken or torn and order a new one online, but we believe in fixing and repairing because we care for the city. It is also a matter of supporting livelihoods,” says a volunteer of Repair Cafe Bengaluru Foundation. A workshop organised by the foundation recently in Sanjay Nagar turned out to be a lively community gathering where people came along with broken musical instruments, decor items, festival lights, and old clothes and learned how to extend their lifespan with sewing, mending and soldering. Those who arrived with worn-out appliances and gadgets left with strong repair networks. Repair Cafe is gearing up for Solvecon, another workshop held at PES University on Feb 21. Apartment dwellers are learning the lost art of mendingSaahas, a Bengaluru-based NGO reaches out to apartment communities, connecting them with repair vendors, from cobblers to tailors through RRR Maadi. “The project seeks to conduct 36 community engagement events to promote a culture of refuse, reduce and repair,” says Smita Kulkarni, communications lead at Saahas. Repair workshops and events are useful for all. Interacting with a cobbler or electric technician allows you to know more about the products you use, their parts, and the cost. The workshops also offer a platform for apartment dwellers to connect with local communities. VOICE BOXRepair Cafe Bengaluru organizes DIY repair workshops, repair training programs, activism for professional repairers and repair walks. We help people repair household appliances, clothes, bicycles, semi-precious jewellery, shoes and bags.Now we are planning to take the Repair Cafe initiative to govt schools across Malleswaram.TEAM REPAIR CAFE BENGALURU FOUNDATIONRRR Maadi has received an overwhelming response from apartments across the city. Once RWAs allot space for repair activities, we identify local repair vendors and organise them for the event. If specific vendors are not available locally, we get them from other areas. We have seen that mostly with umbrella repair.
Deepti Ravi
Residents pay the vendor directly for the repair, while our project team takes care of the logistics for the vendors. We arrange for their lunch and transport. We also do the gap funding in case not many residents turn up for the repair Deepti Ravi, PROJECT MANAGER, RRR MAADI AT SAAHAS. Our community organized a repair workshop through Saahas, wherein over 300 items got repaired.
Suresh Randadath
I’d encourage other communities to conduct such workshops, because in addition to being eco-friendly, it helps the livelihood of people doing the repair work.Suresh Randadath, RESIDENT, CASAGRAND LUXUS, HALEHALLI
