Repair Café – Lifelong Learning Initiative

A repair café is a place where you can get things repaired free of charge. The first such café was held in Amsterdam in 2009, and since then a number of repair cafés have been set up around the world.

The throwaway culture has led us to believe that when something breaks it can be easier and cheaper to replace than to fix it. The result is that many household items that could be mended actually end up in landfills.

Sustainability refers to the notion of meeting present needs without adverse­ly affecting the ability of future generations to meet theirs. The concept first appeared in the 1987 Brundtland Report, which sought to highlight the effect of economic development and globalisation on the environment.

A Sustainability Workshop and Repair Café was recently hosted by the Ministry for Education and Employability’s Directo­rate for Research, Lifelong Learning and Employability in collaboration with Friends of the Earth Malta at the Lifelong Learning Centre, Msida.

During the workshop, participants discussed the current context in Malta, and how to shift towards better practices for the environment. A number of repair stations for pottery, clothing, woodwork, upcycling, bicycle, Fairphone and laptop upgrading were also present on site. The workshop formed part of the Active Citizen Education (ACE) programme recently launched by the Directorate.