Who Is William Kamkwamba? (a report by Harry)

When William Kamkwamba was fourteen he built a windmill. He grew upon a farm in Dowa, Malawi. Even though he lived in a very impoverished place, people all over the world soon discovered him. This is how he grew up.

On August 5th, 1987 William Kamkwamba was born in Dowa, Malawi. He is the second oldest and has six sisters. He is the only boy in his family. He had to drop out of school because of the famine in 2002 in Dowa.

After he had dropped out of school, he decided to learn from the books in the local library. He checked out a book on how to build windmills. The book was called Using Energy.

He decided to try to build a windmill so they did not have to use kerosene to power their house. Here is what I read on his blog about how and what he used to build a windmill.
"First he built a prototype using a radio motor, then his initial five meter windmill out of a broken bicycle and a tractor fan blade, old shock absorber and blue gum trees. After hooking the windmill to a car battery for storage, William was able to power four light bulbs and charge neighbors mobile phones. This system was even equipped with homemade light switches and a circuit breaker made from nails, wire and magnets. The windmill was later extended to 12 meters to better catch the wind above the trees. A third windmill pumped grey water for irrigation."

I think William was lucky to find enough material to build the windmill. His family said he was crazy and he would never finish. However he did finish. He did a great job to conquer obstacles.  A local newspaper reporter from Dowa came to his house and interviewed him and wrote and aritcle. Soon it was getting printed in all the newspapers around the world and people discovered him, slowly but steadily. He became really well known for what he did when TED Global invited him to speak.

If you'd like to view one of the talks he gave at TED, click here: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/william_kamkwamba_how_i_harnessed_the_wind.html