Local social energy: Made in Inox

The excursion stop at the company Made In Inox was a real added value to this excursion. First, the proudness of the company owners about their smisse is great to see and totally justified. Above you see a photo of their smisse. I do appreciate that it was there since it is an amazing piece of history. Also the photos, old objects and sources from their ancestors and the smisse are an amazing tool in giving us a look into the history of their family and life’s work. I especially appreciate it since the brother of my grandad had an old farm full of old tools and a workshop. It makes you truly relieved that life is easier now.

 

Another thing they are justly proud of is their social engagement -which they call “Duaal Leren”- of inviting children to learn about spatial insight and small technical skills and letting older youth work in their workshop and acquaintance the work floor. It reminds me of Henk’s talk on “local social energy”. Socially engaged people make initiatives like “Dorpspunt” work and let others benefit from that work. The people from Made In Inox are also socially engaged and let young people benefit of it. The best thing is that they have such a unique and interesting place and that they just make it available for others, to make other people better. They realize that their workshop can be of other use than just the obvious ones. 

 

To end, I want to say that it is nice to see some local family businesses in a world of gigantism. The fact that their workers all live in the region, that their products are also regionally asked for (for example the sign for the Sint-Bernardus brewery of Watou), is the kind of business that I do appreciate and that makes you believe in the local social energy and economy Henk Vandaele of Heuvelland Vrijstaat talked about.

Vincent Deketelaere

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