I would like to tell you a story, the story of a place.
Do you know the story of Ali-Baba's cave?
There is a place here, in Santa Maria da Feira, which is similar in every way. You can find a bit of everything: wooden furniture, sewing machines, fabric, antiques and much more.
The only difference with Ali’s cave is that here they shine again after transformation. This Atelier (whose creations can be admired on the Instagram page novo2novo) run by the association Rosto Solidario, allows young European volunteers, but also members of the association and the community, to learn how to make new things out of old, to give a new life to materials or objects that had lost their energy, their shine.
Learning, sharing, this cave is a place of exchange and transmission above all. Exchange, creativity, learning but also discovery. Some people have never done this type of activity in their lives and come away having found a passion, a hobby, an activity to which they want to give more space in their daily lives.
A passion that brings out treasures. Everyone has their own way of fighting and committing themselves to the causes that are important to us, and this initiative is one of them.
This is the very principle of upcycling and novo2novo’s motto:
So that used and old products gain value instead of losing it.
Novo2novo is a little bit of all this, everyone finds their happiness and leaves their little trace. So that the reborn object has a long and beautiful life with a new owner.
To make something new out of something old and to leave some of its history and its time, so that this history and this past time connect to someone whose history is more or less unknown to us.
It is a way of thinking and rethinking upcycling and integrating it into a larger and more human process than it might have seemed.
We're getting closer, aren't we? From the cave of a thousand and one treasures?
Erick Rangeard
Erick Rangeard is a 25 years old French man that loves and uses creative writing as a way to express himself and inspire others. He is currently taking part in a volunteer program in Santa Maria da Feira, Portugal, with the NGDO Rosto Solidário.
