Not sure how to fix a faulty household item or electronic gadget? Fret not! Kaki Repair is here to the rescue. A movement formed by Johnson Lam Hooi Liang, Kaki Repair teaches people to repair their broken items for free.
“Most people don’t bother to repair their broken things. They would rather buy new ones for the sake of convenience,” said Johnson, who is also the founder of Kaki DIY, a community of do-it-yourself enthusiasts.
Determined to cultivate a “repair, don’t replace” mindset and to reduce waste in landfills, the 38-year-old computer science graduate from Universiti Sains Malaysia launched the Kaki Repair programme in July last year.
When asked how the name came about, Johnson shared that “kaki” is a Malaysian slang word that means a group of people sharing the same interest. In addition, in Johnson’s Hokkien dialect, the word means “yourself”, hence Kaki Repair signifies “repairing it yourself”.
A passionate DIY-er himself, Johnson is no stranger to fixing things from scratch. As a boy, he repaired his own toys.
“Of course, it all started with me destroying them in the first place,” he recalled with a laugh.
All those years of experimenting with different tools and gadgets, and observing others, have stood him in good stead. Besides holding down a full-time job as the programme director in a telecommunications company, he organises Kaki Repair workshops once a month – alternating between The Garage KL in Ampang and The School in Jaya One, Petaling Jaya.
But Kaki Repair is not a one-man show. To achieve what he sets out to do, Johnson has the support of a group of like-minded volunteers. Over a duration of four hours, participants with damaged items – called “fixers” – fix their devices with the help of the volunteers who diagnose the problems.
Thus far, the response to the workshops has been encouraging, with an average of 50 people turning up each time. They have once even accommodated up to 200 people in a single session.
Among the common items that have been fixed at the workshops were computer adapters, fans, vacuum cleaners, microwave ovens, bags and personal computers. For Johnson, the travel adapter was the one that required the most effort.
“Although it was a simple problem, the springs and all the little pins popped up all over the place after we opened the adapter. It took a while to get everything back in place,” he recounted.
Having conducted seven such workshops and gained close to 1,500 members, the community is gaining traction. But the journey has not been without obstacles.
“Getting the public to understand the concept is the hardest. Most participants expect their things to be fixed by volunteers, instead of being hands-on themselves,” said Johnson, who grew up in Batu Kurau, Taiping.
However, thanks to news coverage by the mainstream media, the message that Kaki Repair is not a repair shop but a space for DIY-ers and those with damaged items to work together, is slowly getting across, he shared.
“Diagnosing and repairing things are fundamental life skills,” said Johnson, elaborating that everyone should cultivate the habit of identifying problems, looking around for resources and then fixing the problems.
He also pointed out that by trying to repair one’s broken item, one will learn more about its components, such as live wires, fuses and different types of batteries. One should begin early, too, as Johnson advised teenagers to be more observant.
Making observations will help one develop an understanding of how things are made and how they function, he said, adding that one must also be resourceful.
“Oftentimes, you won’t be able to repair something by replacing the broken part; instead, you will have to utilise other materials to act as substitutes,” he explained.
He felt that parents can also play a part in instilling a “can do” attitude in their children.
“If we cultivate the mindset in children since young, they will always take the initiative to be resourceful and solve problems themselves along the way,” he said.
“I hope society will realise that fixing and repairing things are important, both as a life skill and as an effort to reduce waste. Hopefully, more people will replicate or adopt the concept in their communities to grow this movement,” he said.
Note: This article was written and published in The Star's NIE pullout in April 2018.
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