Ingrid Vaca Diez from Bolivia is a lawyer by profession and she always stood up for the rights of her clients at any cost and at any time.
But aside from being a lawyer, Ingrid also became a self-taught architect and a designer when she started her project of building affordable houses made out of plastic bottles for the underprivileged families in her country.
Although Ingrid lives comfortably, she became worried at the rising level of poverty and garbage problems in Bolivia. That’s why the kind-hearted lawyer made a huge impact on her community by addressing these problems.
It all started when her husband saw all the empty plastic bottles that were stacked up high in their backyard. He told Ingrid that she probably had enough bottles to build a house. The idea hit her mind and made her wonder if it’s really possible to make use of these plastic bottles to build a house.
However, Ingrid did not immediately come across how severe the issue was until she visited a local school in their area and asked the students to write a letter about what they wanted for Christmas.
The professional lawyer decided to pursue her idea after reading a letter from one of the students saying that all she wanted for Christmas was getting more room for her family as they were living in a small house, which is not enough for them and it has also a leakage problem because their house is made of rubber and cartons.
Ingrid collected a large amount of old plastic or even glass bottles since she knew that bricks are costly and many people cannot afford it. She filled the plastic bottles with dirt or sand and uses them as bricks to build the houses.
To build a house of 1,830 square feet, Ingrid’s team needs about 36,000 empty plastic bottles.
But what’s more interesting is that she was able to help build more than 300 houses from recycling millions of plastic bottles even if she doesn’t have experience in architecture.
The self-taught architect proves that sometimes resourcefulness and creativity can be a great solution to the big problems of the people.
source: virtualpinoy