As a lawyer, Ingrid Vaca Diez has always stood up for the rights of her clients. This time, she is standing up for another cause—helping the poor to have their own houses.
The professional lawyer from Bolivia never planned to become an architect but the idea struck her mind after her husband commented on the stacks of empty plastic bottles she gathered on their patio.
Her husband saw all the empty plastic bottles on their patio that were stacked up high that he later said to Diez she probably had enough bottles to build a house.
Her husband’s words suddenly hit her and thoughts rushed to her mind. What if she could actually build affordable houses for the families in need from the waste?
However, it did not come across Diez how serious the issue was until she visited a local school and asked the children to write a letter of what they wanted for Christmas.
One of them wrote that all she wanted was for more rooms for her family as they currently had to live in a tiny house. Her house was made of rubber and cartons and was constantly leaking.
Realizing that her idea could actually give a positive impact to the underprivileged families in her country, Diez was inspired to start the project.
Empty bottles can be easily found and they are way cheaper than bricks. To make the empty plastic bottles stronger and durable, Diez filled them with dirt and sand and uses the bottles as bricks to build the houses.
For a house of 1,830 square feet, it takes about 36,000 empty plastic bottles.
Even though she has no prior experience in building a house, Diez has managed to help build 300 houses so far by using millions of empty plastic bottles.
Diez’s story proves that sometimes, cheap and creative solutions can be great at solving problems.
She had no funds and no experience in building a house but that did not stop Diez from helping the families in need to have a home of their dream.
Credit: Bright Side
