Light returns to the slums of Manila thanks to the Liter of Light project. With the old plastic bottles and bleach, the sun enters the houses
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himLiter of light Bulbs made with plastic bottles, which work thanks to the light of the Sun. The idea arises from the urgent need for some populations of the Philippines not to remain in the dark. And so, thanks to the help of a group of students from the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), the solar bulb previously placed in research centers, has been modified to meet local needs starting from readily available materials.
Thus was born Liter of Light project, launched six months ago by the My Shelter Foundation of Illac Diaz. A plastic bottle, water and bleach, along with a hammer, rivets, sheet metal, sandpaper and epoxy resin, are enough to bring light to hundreds of poor homes in Manila, thanks to Diaz's project.
It was enough to place a plastic bottle in some holes drilled in the tin roofs of the barracks, with the part of the cap facing outwards and having filled the bottle with the bleach. Inside it, sunlight reflects, producing up to 60 watts of light and illuminating homes.
This is no small solution when you consider that with a dollar and by recovering the bottles it will be possible to return the light to 25 thousand low-income homes in the Philippines.
In a country where 40% of the population lives on less than 2 dollars a day, the terrible typhoon Washi has also aggravated the situation of these populations, which three days ago struck the Philippines, dragging over in the mud. 1000 people. There are already about 45 displaced persons.
Eduardo Carrillo, a resident of one of Manila's many poor areas explained: “Before having the 'bottled light', the walkways to access our homes were really dark and inside it was even worse. Now the children are no longer afraid, they are happy because now they can play inside instead of staying on the streets all day “.
The founder of My Shelter Foundation, Illac Diaz explained: "The challenge is to understand how the developing world can develop its own model to limit carbon emissions, so we cannot afford to buy and import patented solutions produced by the developed world, we cannot wait until these become economically convenient. "
In addition to generating clean energy using the old bottles and in addition to having restored the light to the slums of Manila, the program started by Liter of Light project it has already given work to 20 unemployed people. “We wanted to show that a man can change the place where he lives”. Even with little.
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