World Repair Day in Skopje: "Repair, Don't Throw Away" gets memoranda, an IPA project and workshops

The ARNO association, together with the Municipality of Kisela Voda, the Macedonian Artisans Trade Association (MATA) and the "Mother Teresa" retirement home in Skopje, marked World Repair Day. Macedonia is celebrating it for the third time, while the global initiative is turning ten this year. The motto was "Repairs Connect People".

ARNO signed cooperation memoranda with MATA and with the retirement home, and announced new activities through an IPA project that will teach repair skills at the "Ništo novo" ("Nothing New") centre. The aim, according to Irina Janevska from ARNO, is to show that "repairs are not just a matter of personal environmental awareness, but a systemic change that is part of European legislation". The mayor of Kisela Voda, Beti Stamenkoska Trajkoska, said that "repairing is a responsible act: care for things, care for nature and, above all, care for one another".

The "Mother Teresa" home says its residents live the "Repair, Don't Throw Away" motto every day. MATA presented Craft2grow, a project funded through Erasmus+ that develops soft skills through sustainable fashion, and the day ended with two workshops: one on the Japanese sewing technique "sashiko" with designer Irina Toševa, and one on creative textile repairs with Olivija Georgievska from MATA.

The organisers also pointed to the European policies meant to make the right to repair easier: longer-lasting devices and more accessible spare parts. In the EU, that is becoming law. Will the right to repair ever reach Macedonian legislation - or will repairing stay a Saturday workshop?