Landfill Harmonic - Making Music From Trash

Cateura, Paraguay is a slum built on a landfill. That's two strikes, but the inhabitants are certainly not out.

Nicolás Gómez is a humble garbage picker. What is a garbage picker, you ask? A garbage picker is "a person who salvages reusable or recyclable materials thrown away by others to sell or for personal consumption." That's from Wikipedia.

Mr. Gomez is also a luthier.

Favio Chávez is a musician who works on a recycling program in Cateura and seeing the needs of the children of the area, he decided to start a music school. That was the beginning of the Recycled Orchestra and is what brought the two men together.

Mr. Gómez creates the instruments from scavenged trash and Sr. Chávez teaches the kids to make music. 

Below is a short video about their endeavor. It is from a Kickstarter project to finish a documentary and help the orchestra tour internationally. I am supporting this project. How about you?