Building an Orchestra of Hope: How Favio Chavez taught children to make music from trash

Building an Orchestra of Hope is the true story of music-loving, environmental scientist Favio Chávez, who landed a supervising job in Cateura, Paraguay. His plan was to educate the people there on better ways to collect and sort the garbage that made up the landfill they called home. Instead, he became the conductor of the now-famous Recycled Orchestra. The idea was birthed when parents from the town asked him to teach their children how to play music and he was confronted with a dearth of instruments. On top of that, even if a quality instrument could be acquired, its value would exceed that of the home in which it was kept and thus would be a ready invitation to thieves. So, with the help of Colá, a landfill worker and gifted woodworker, they set about scavenging parts from the trash heap and piece them together to construct instruments. Their monetary value was miniscule, but the value they added to the community was priceless as children learned to play and read music and eventually had the opportunity to share their story with the world. Illustrations by Luisa Uribe capture the emotions and details of this inspiring story.