Global volunteer movement repairs home appliances free of charge for needy, and with smiles all round
- Repair Cafe volunteers fix appliances for Hongkongers, often elderly, at no cost as part of an international movement, and do home visits for the housebound
- The service launched in Hong Kong in 2018 and operates once a month, fixing fans, rice cookers, hair dryers, vacuum cleaners, radios – even watches
An elderly woman smiles broadly when she is told her son’s broken fan is now fixed. Another is elated because she can cook rice again now that her mini rice cooker has been mended. Hearing about the service, my colleague gave me his 20-year-old radio to see if the Repair Cafe could fix the broken antenna and get the FM signal working again.
It’s the happy faces and profuse gratitude that motivate members of the Repair Cafe Hong Kong, whose work both helps the community and reduces the amount of waste going to landfills. It’s a community initiative under which volunteers who are able to repair things gather once a month to try to fix household items free of charge – mostly for elderly people.
Repair Cafes started in 2009 in the Dutch city of Amsterdam and today there are almost 1,900 worldwide; the latest one launched in Vancouver, Canada, in late August.
The Hong Kong chapter was started in December 2018 by Jacky Chan Chun-yue and Mandy Li Kim-man, both project officers with the non-government organisation Community Leap. Monthly Repair Cafe meet-ups now attract an average of about 30 people who need to have items such as fans, rice cookers, vacuum cleaners, hair dryers and even watches fixed.
“The first time we held the Repair Cafe, we were a bit disorganised because we didn’t have all the spare parts and equipment available for the volunteers to fix things, but when the items are fixed, people are so happy and grateful,” says Li. “That’s because sometimes the seniors’ children aren’t available to help them fix things or they don’t know how to fix them.”
In addition to fixing broken appliances, the Hong Kong Repair Cafe extends its services to help old people in two ways: first, if an elderly person is unable to leave his or her flat to bring in something to be fixed, young people are on hand to take it to the repair team and return it to the owner when it’s fixed.