These Kids Don’t Need Toys to Have a Good Time

At Repair Kid, children make art out of broken objects. This way they learn how appliances look and work on the inside. Plus they learn the value of these materials.

RepairKid

Everywhere in the world, there’s repair cafés where people bring their broken stuff to have them fixed by enthusiastic volunteers.

An amazing concept, but Cis felt there was something missing; the children. With the future in mind, Cis wanted to get this group enthusiastic for reparing and reusing stuff as well, and at the same time get them enthusiastic for playing with spare parts. This is why she started RepairKid, which focuses on this demographic.

repairing for all ages

Six years ago, Cis started RepairKid, a side branch of the now well-known Repair Cafés, but different; at RepairKid, kids can play and mess around with parts and old stuff. They’re allowed to get dirty, and they can let their imagination run wild.

With friends and acquaintances, Cis is known as the person who finds a use for almost everything; stuff was always brought to her place. She became a volunteer at the RepairCafé and during a national meeting, she notices that one target group was missing entirely; the children.

To get this group involved, she submitted her idea for a RepairCafé for kids into a contest and won the prize to start her initiative. From the money she won, she bought a caravan that allowed her to tour with stuff and stop in places where children can play and tinker with parts endlessly.

After w hile, Cis decided to start a fund that RepairKid would fall under; Make It ArtWorthy, or; MIAW.

Founder Cis showes what all is possible An almost unlimited amount of freedom to tinker, play and make something out of parts others wouldn’t look twice at. A fresh look at ‘junk’ makes it valuable once more. Source: BrightVibes

One minute it’s nothing… … the next it becomes a little doll! Source: BrightVibes

beyond repairing

RepairKid originated from the Repair Cafés, but it has become something else entirely. Founder Cis says;

“The crux of RepairKid isn’t even the reycling. That was the trigger for it, but what it’s really about here, is what happens on the mat. There’s a vibe where you get the felling that – as a kid – everything is possivle once more. That everything is allowed and everything is possible. That you can sit here and feel; ‘I’m allowed to make a mess. My hands can get dirty, I can sit on the ground, I can try different stuff. And I don’t even have to clean anything.’ I miss that vibe. You don’t get that at school anymore, you hardly see it on the streets anymore. While kids need that. It’s so easy to do this at home. And that is sort of my message to the parents. Just put down a rug, grab a broken appliance and sit down with your kid. Grab a tool, it doesn’t even matter what. Even if you try to make something else out of a fork! What matters is that vibe, that atmosphere, where you really feel that there’s more possible than you thought.”

people from all ages can go crazy with all sorts of objects and parts Make It ArtWorthy arranges the place and the stuff, and the people bring the fun and creativity. Source: BrightVibes