Hi, Roza here reporting from Manila, Philippines. I am not a journalist by profession like other writers of D-FIE, I am still studying, as an undergraduate student at Marikina College. Just have read one insightful article Breathe green in plastic garden recently, where we encounter people who use plastic to create gardens, this triggered my childhood memory, so I want to tell you that. If you enter our slums in Manila you could hardly move a single step without switching on the light, it used to be complete dark as there happens to be fewer windows, dwellers were forced to accept this as it is. A small and smart innovative step has changed the phase. Seven or eight years back we started using plastic bottles in our slums to light up the dark rooms. Plastic bottles filled with water to be fixed on the roof has changed the game. Darkness vanished. It glows during the day time. Fixed solar panels charge the battery for the lantern to use during night time. An organization called Litter of Light works on this project. Through them we have solved this big problem. A similar technique is being used in African slums as well.
2 comments
What a smart innovation and a heartwarming story. Kudos!
Thank you, Professor. We need more such positive innovations to cope with poverty. Need more participation in this Dialogue towards an inclusive economy we are longing for, we need to figure out more sustainable ways to the poverty reduction process. Please share some of your amazing inventions with us and give our readers the chance to know how scientific researches in your laboratory successfully serving the community.
With unfeigned regards and a vast appetite to listen from you.
Hindol Goswami
Editor, D-FIE