Repair charity gets support amidst location search
A CHARITY aiming to fix household items in Gosport has received a donation alongside a Mayoral visit at their first event in a new venue; which was held earlier this month with a number of local residents in attendance.
Repair Café Gosport are a voluntary organisation that hopes to reduce landfill by helping to fix a range of items through their events, which are held on the second Saturday on each month across different locations in Gosport. Normal timings are from 10:30am until 1pm.
Residents are encouraged to request a slot for their item to be repaired before attending an event with their broken object. A volunteer will try their best to repair any items without any cost, although users are urged to give a small donation to keep the service running.
Previous successes have included the repair of bike chains, record players, coffee makers, electric can openers and toasters; all of which have stopped the items from being thrown away. A keyboard cleaning service is available for laptops and computers during certain times of year.
During the last monthly event held at Fort Brockhurst, the Repair Cafe received an oscilloscope, donated by ESWIN UK, an electrical manufacturing company. Helen Mizon featured in this presentation as she said “we try to reduce landfill, it’s good to share it”; whilst also stating that when the company has equipment that is not of business use to them anymore, they offer to donate it to charities.
In response to the donation, chair of the Repair Cafe, Keith Brady, said: ‘We are thankful to the generosity of ESWIN UK, who has donated test equipment to Repair Cafe Gosport. Our volunteers are excited by the prospect of taking on more challenging repairs that previously would not have been possible without this type of advanced equipment, preventing more broken things from going to landfill.”
At the October Repair Cafe, volunteers helped to prevent 31 kg of waste and 215 kg of CO2 emissions. Of the 24 items brought to the Repair Cafe, 38% were fixed and 54% were diagnosed and the guest advised on the next steps to take to repair it.
This month, the Repair Cafe was not held in its usual venue in Hardway, instead being held at the 160-year-old Fort Brockhurst. Cllr Richard Earle, the Mayor of Gosport, attended the event, and had helped to arrange the English Heritage Site as Repair Cafe’s venue for October.
Speaking on the importance of Fort Brockhurst, Cllr Earle said that it is “one of the best preserved Victorian forts in the whole country”. He added that using historical sites for events such as the Repair Cafe helps to preserve them, and that preserving these important areas is his “passion”.
The Mayor spoke in support of the Repair Cafe, saying “[it is] such a brilliant idea, we live in a throw away society these days. I’ve already had a talk about accommodating the Fort as a new venue.”
Keith Brady, chair of Repair Cafe Gosport said: ‘It has been fantastic to collaborate with English Heritage to use Fort Brockhurst bringing Repair Cafe to new parts of the Gosport Community today.’
The next Repair Cafe will be held on November 9 at Rowner Community Centre and despite seeking a permanent venue, it is fortunately not going anywhere. Bookings for the November event can be made through the organisation’s website or Facebook page.
PICTURED (LEFT TO RIGHT): Debbie Sherman, the Mayor’s wife; Maduka Ariyasiri, a Repair Cafe volunteer; Helen Mizon of ESWIN UK; and Gosport Mayor Cllr Richard Earle.
