Picture of a repair table with tools and items for repair. A volunteer is working on a small suitcase.

Successful repair cafés

- Events

Next repair café will be on Saturday 27 July, 10.30 am to 1.00 pm. See you there!

Thanks to all our superb volunteers who work so generously at the Birkenhead repair cafés. We hold one every couple of months. Fixers, advisers from a range of community groups, church members who make morning tea and run the kids’ craft activity, our Highbury Community House co-hosts … what a wonderful team.

Woman working at jewellery repairs.
Jewellery repairs
A smiling woman holding a steam mop.
Yep, fixed

Repairs, social time and kai, talks, tech help, advice, displays, crafts and fun. Come along!

Attendees over the three hours (9.00 am-noon) are always delighted to have things fixed – that precious serving dish that had belonged to Grandma or the appliance which doesn’t have to be thrown away after all. Sometimes people appreciate knowing that an item can be recycled with a clear conscience. Thanks to everyone who comes along for the fun and social time. At each repair café, the fixes are free but we take up donations for the morning tea. Money raised (somewhere between $100-$200) goes in full to De Paul House.

Where: in the hall, 172 Hinemoa Street. Free! Everyone is welcome.

Fixers working on a toaster and other electrical items; clothing repairs at the sewing machines in the background.
We’ll try!
People working on electrical appliances.
Electrical & general
Three women looking at a belt that has been repaired.
Repair made
Two men working on a child's bike. A table of brochures in the foreground.
Bike Kaipātiki volunteers working on a child’s bike
Woman at a sewing machine. She is smiling. Cables and supplies in the background.
Sewing repairs
People around the craft table; in the background, men examining an old valve radio.
Crafts, July 2022
Two women knitting. The sun is shining on them. Garden visible in the background.
People standing at the repair tables. One wears a shirt with the logo of Onewa Christian Community.
Plates of morning tea food, brochures and a sign saying all donations to De Paul House.
A smiling woman and a dental irrigator on the table beside her.
Successful repair!
Woman holding an old toy monkey that plays cymbals.
Barbara and her friend
Woman with a display of composting materials. In the background, a sign: 'Onewa Christian Community.'
Composting help

Repair cafés, hubs and other community-led repair and recycle initiatives such as the Birkenhead repair café won support in the waste strategy the government released in 2023.