How it began: Several years ago, Favio Chávez was working at a massive landfill south of Asunción, Paraguay. He became friends with the families who live among the trash and work as recyclers. Chávez then figured out how to make musical instruments using the scraps of dirty oil cans, jars, wood, forks and other junk in the Cateura Landfill. He also created an orchestra with local kids as the members.
Chávez is a musician with experience forming classical ensembles. He initially put a few instruments together for the children who had nothing to play with. He was not planning on creating a brass and string section from scratch. After hearing the good sound that the instruments produced,however, he decided to perfect them. Using the help of a resident garbage picker named “Cola,” Chávez constructed smooth sounding, built-to-scale cellos and violins, an astonishing feat considering that he used only basic carpentry skills and scraps from the landfill.
Chávez’s orchestra now has 30 members and although is has been a big commitment for the children and their families, they have received worldwide recognition. They’ve performed several places such as Argentina, Brazil, and Germany. A U.S based film maker even made a documentary about them and their inspiring story.
The children and Chávez say that ultimately the goal of the music project is to educate the public about a world problem that they feel shouldn’t be ignored. Were it not for Chávez and the Landfill Harmonic, these children would never get a chance to learn how to play an instrument or be a part of an orchestra. To many of these children, music is a form of hope and a true joy. It is the best part of their lives.
“I made this orchestra to educate the world and raise awareness,“ says Chávez. “But it’s also a social message to let people know that even though these students are in extreme poverty, they can also contribute to society. They deserve an opportunity.”
This is an amazing video about the Landfill Harmonic. Please, check it out!
Just like Frank’s post-another great story. Great stories sell. Great stories tend to have wide social appeal and thus, wide social backing. It is touching to see Chavez’s heart through all this. He took his passion and vision and made it his life, something vitally important to any entrepreneur.
Turning trash into musical intruments is an outstanding accomplishment. The fact that Chavez came up with a way to benefit those in need and re-use garbage is astonishing to me. I have heard some stories over the years of people reusing items to get better use out of them. However, I haven’t heard of a more successful and socially beneficial story as this one. Music is a language in itself, and I believe his business has potential of spreading worldwide.
This is recycling at its best. How classic, turning garbage into music. I’m pretty sure I did this in fifth grade and that is why this idea is so genius. He created so much morale in that garbage dump by creating music. Something that is so innocent and universal. His idea to do this is so sensitive and personal. I would have loved to have been there.
I really enjoyed reading this article. I’m inspired by their ability to turn what they have, which in this case was unfortunately a lot of trash, into an amazing product. music not only provides a good pass time but also opportunities to be creative. this simple project added countless hours of joy for the ids and those around them.
This is great proof that sometimes you’re going to have to use unfamiliar methods in regards to design in order to be successful. I’m sure he didn’t grow up thinking that this was going to be his career path, but he saw his skills and found a creative way to use it.
This is really interesting when it comes to design. He took two ideas that dont really go together normally “trash and music”, and turned trash into something that changed its whole purpose and put what was wasted to a better use.