{"id":37169,"date":"2016-04-06T14:08:31","date_gmt":"2016-04-06T12:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/repaircafe.meodemo.nl\/en\/repair-cafe-with-refugees\/"},"modified":"2021-08-24T12:48:06","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T10:48:06","slug":"repair-cafe-with-refugees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.repaircafe.org\/en\/repair-cafe-with-refugees\/","title":{"rendered":"Repair Caf\u00e9 with refugees"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Aleppo, the 37-year old Syrian D\u00eda owned a textile factory for children\u2019s clothing. Now his days consist of eating, sleeping and learning Dutch. On Saturday, 26 March he repaired a turtleneck sweater in Repair Caf\u00e9 Groningen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the lunch table, one hour before the Repair Caf\u00e9 was set to open, regular volunteer Wilma Vergeer already knew it was going to be a very nice day. \u201cYou hear so much about refugees through the media, but really we didn\u2019t know anything about them. We were talking casually over lunch and it took off from there,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

Wilma was having her sandwich with eight refugees and three interpreters: two from the Dutch Central Body for Asylum Seekers and one sign language interpreter of the Institute for the Deaf where the Repair Caf\u00e9 is located once every two months. After lunch the repair tables quickly filled up. The regular volunteers took on the job of assistants and the refugees the role of repairers.<\/p>\n

Happy to be able to do something
\n<\/strong>Behind the sewing machine is Batol from Syria, she is 21 years old. Sieta from Groningen is helping her repair a shirt. Batol is happy she is able to do something. She is terribly bored at the refugee centre. \u201cAlthough there was a war on in Syria, life continued regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dia, from the textile factory, comes to take a look. Beside him is a happy-looking guy with two different-coloured eyes and a quiff. \u201cLike David Bowie,\u201d he smiles. Bashar was studying in Damascus: one more year and he would have been a lawyer. \u201cI repaired an espresso machine,\u201d says the almost-lawyer.<\/p>\n

A trend
\n<\/strong>Before this, in Tirol<\/a>, Austria, and Bussum<\/a>, the Netherlands, Syrian refugees made repairs together with volunteers at the Repair Caf\u00e9. According to Petra Olgers from the Repair Caf\u00e9 in Bussum it is quite easy to involve refugees in a meeting. To have them help every week or every month is more complicated, she explains. \u201cTheir situation can change rapidly.\u201d They may have to move to a different location, or they are no longer allowed to volunteer. \u201cHowever,\u201d Petra says: \u201cEven repairing together just once can be quite valuable\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Aleppo, the 37-year old Syrian D\u00eda owned a textile factory for children\u2019s clothing. Now his days consist of eating, sleeping and learning Dutch. On Saturday, 26 March he repaired a turtleneck sweater in Repair Caf\u00e9 Groningen. At the lunch…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":37231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[277],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-from-our-network","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"\nRepair Caf\u00e9 with refugees - Repaircafe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.repaircafe.org\/en\/repair-cafe-with-refugees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Repair Caf\u00e9 with refugees - Repaircafe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In Aleppo, the 37-year old Syrian D\u00eda owned a textile factory for children\u2019s clothing. 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