Visit the Llandrindod Repair Café pages on Facebook
Check out our photo archive on Flickr
In July this year, Llandrindod Repair Cafe celebrated its 5th anniversary with festive cakes, balloons, speeches and, of course, repairs. Much has been achieved since its launch and we are very proud to be Wales' longest running Repair Cafe. Well over 1000 faulty household items have been fixed, we've been interviewed on local radio, appeared in the papers, won an award - but most of all we've all had a lot of fun and satisfaction from doing something positive.
Close to 70% of items handled go out in a much better state than when they came in. However, too many items remain difficult or impossible to repair, especially electrical goods. This must change, but until then our and other Repair Cafes will keep rebelling against the throwaway culture as best they can.
Our Repair Cafe is here not just to repair things and prevent things going to landfill, but to enjoy repairing together, bring back forgotten skills and learn something useful. It's all about the idea that repairing is fun and the right thing to do. In fact, no repairing event is the same. We've had an interesting assortment of items come through the door over the years and it is never dull!
The Cafe also hosts a Freegle table for re-use of small unwanted items, and collects tools for TFSR Cymru - a local charity which helps families in Africa make a better living.
Our thanks go to the Celf Centre for the provision of their excellent space and also to our visitors for supporting us over the last 5 years.
More than anything, we would be nowhere without our handy fixers, who turn up each month to fix broken stuff! One memorable comment we received after a successful repair sums it up: " It is a combination of brains, brawn and bravery! "
These people truly are our new heroes and on our 5th anniversary we want to celebrate them, and all our hardworking volunteers, for making our Repair Cafe a continuing success.
Martina Holmes
LRC organiser
