An innovative fashion designer has found ways to recycle campaign tarpaulins by turning them into useful school bags.
As the national elections have come to an end, people are now starting to remove and discard different campaign paraphernalia such as tarpaulins and posters. However, instead of adding to the pile of garbage that could heavily contribute to harming the environment, others have thought of an innovative way that could be efficient and useful for a lot of people.
Fashion designer Mara Chua, known for creating couture pieces that empower women, and dressing up beauty queens, got inspired by a suggestion of a Kakampink on Twitter to transform campaign tarpaulins into functional school bags. Chua herself also identifies as a huge Kakampink, a term for supporters of the presidential candidate Leni Robredo, and despite the heartbreaking results for Robredo supporters, they chose to turn their grief and emotions into something beautiful.
On both her Instagram and Facebook accounts, the fashion designer shared how she loved the idea of minimizing our waste after the elections since it’s one of the biggest problems we get to face after campaign season, “I fell in love with the idea so I decided to make them as soon as possible with the tarps I have,” Chua said.
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Chua also encouraged and invited more people to collaborate with her by donating discarded campaign materials, so they can produce more bags, and she is looking to partner with more groups that can help them distribute their finished products, “We are collecting tarps so we can make more. And we are looking to partner with groups that can distribute them.” Chua said that those who wish to be a part of this project can simply send her a message.
After sharing her story, the fashion designer didn’t expect the project to reach thousands of people and be overwhelmed with messages. In her following Instagram post, she began to thank the people who have reached out to her. “This unexpectedly blew up. Thank you so much for the OVERWHELMING response. We are still trying to respond to literally hundreds of messages and comments,” she wrote. With more people learning about her small project, she also decided to form a fundraising project to reach more beneficiaries and partner with other communities.
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As the country welcomes a new term of elected officials, people like Mara Chua aims to continue to extend their message of hope and live up to the purpose that they have started during the campaign season, to connect one another, and put their talent into a greater good that will surely uplift other people.
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