"Children and young people are often more open to repair options"

Lieve: "Discarded electrical and electronic devices are one of the fastest growing waste streams in Europe. At the same time, the citizen repair initiatives increase. More and more volunteers are committed to reducing the waste mountain. The European project Sharepair aims to bridge these two realities: we want to support volunteers in Repair Cafés and make user-friendly and accessible repair solutions better known to citizens."

Sharepair's partners aim to achieve lasting behavioural change among consumers so that they see repair as their first option. One of the keys to this is working with children and young people.

"Children and young people are consumers themselves. Today's generation of young people is growing up in a world where the climate impact of our consumption behaviour is increasingly evident and more sustainable alternatives such as repair and the second-hand market are once again becoming more prevalent."

"Moreover, children and young people have quite some influence on those around them. If they think repair options are important, they can inspire their family and friends to make more sustainable choices themselves. That makes it interesting to work with children and young people within Sharepair."

"If you want to change behaviour, you have to make children and young people understand the impact their choices have on the climate. Make them think about the causes and consequences of waste for people worldwide. And give them the opportunity to critically scrutinise their choices and think about alternatives."

"We soon realised that a purely informative curriculum would not fit our objective and chose the approach Djapo brought to the table, with a focus on action-oriented work. Thus, during our lessons, pupils also investigate a sustainability issue and come up with concrete actions within their own habitat. Moreover, Djapo was able to present a lot of expertise as well as a nice portfolio of quality projects."

Djapo was commissioned to develop teaching materials for children between 10 and 12 years and for young people between 14 and 18 years.

"We wanted to be closely involved in the development of the curriculum because we had a clear vision. But that wasn't a problem for Djapo. Educational developers Bram and Sabine organised several cocreative sessions where they prepared the teaching package together with us. Those sessions were very structured and goal-oriented: afterwards, the agreements were clear, everyone knew perfectly what everyone's role was and what the next milestones would be. There was also enough space to go through the draft versions, so that we could adjust content or shift focus where necessary."

Communication planning was also led by Djapo. "Djapo has a rich network within the education sector. Therefore, it seemed natural to us to channel communication through them, so that our curriculum gets the attention it deserves. Moreover, by offering the curriculum through your website, it remains accessible even after our project is over."

How Lieve looks back on the collaboration? "Very positive. What is very typical for Djapo is the open communication and clear agreements. And if something didn't go according to plan - after all, every project has unexpected elements - we found a solution in constructive consultation. And it has to be said: Djapo employs really nice people. That makes working together extra fun."