A BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND.....AN INSPIRING TRUE STORY

THIS TRUE STORY maybe not too old to be republished in this BLOG as many keep remembering the inspiration of a boy who was against all odds overcoming the difficulties of his life at home by giving a GREAT WONDERS to help his family. This is his story which I have compiled from few websites and blogs.

Who is this William Kamkwamba..?,... Read the story of this great talent and genius person....                          

William Kamkwamba is a Malawian inventor and author. He gained fame in his country when, in 2002, he built a windmill to power a few electrical appliances in his family's house in Masitala using blue gum trees, bicycle parts, and materials collected in a local scrapyard.

Since then, he has built a solar-powered water pump that supplies the first drinking water in his village and two other windmills (the tallest standing at 39 feet) and is planning two more, including one in Lilongwe, the political capital of Malawi. (info from wikipedia)

How did he do it?.... His educational background did not permit him to do this extraordinary thing. He was 15 years old when he managed to built one windmill for his family, a source of power luxury that only be enjoyed by minority of Malawians.

Kamkwamba was a school dropout.. His family could not afford to pay his tuition fee of USD80/ year due to famine that struck Malawi on that time which killed thousands of people in 2002. Kamkwamba family depended on farming activities as daily survival. When drought struck his home,his family faced great challenge of starvation. But despite of this setback, Kamkwamba was very determined to get his education and knowledge. He began visiting a local library and found a book "USING ENERGY". LACK of ENGLISH, Kamkwamba learnt a bit of physics by using diagram and drawings illustrated in the book and explored more to understand the knowledge of WIND POWER.

 The circuit breaker built by Kamkwamba

A passionate and determined person, Kamkwamba was motivated to continue to learn from the rented book he obtained from the library and eventually gained essential knowledge that not just benefiting him but also the whole village where hi lived. He figured out how to construct a windmill without any how-to instructions, simply by reading a bit about them and looking at a basic picture of one in a library book. Even  people in his village thought of him as crazy and unconventional in what he was trying to do, he ended up doing something pretty amazing.

(Visit: http://movingwindmills.org for donation to support Malawian run rural economic development  and  education project in Malawi)

It’s stories like his, in which he had a lot less resources and opportunities in life to begin with, that really inspiring and motivating. William has since given a TED talk, published a book about his story titled “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” and is attending Dartmouth University in the US. 

Special thanks to Bryan Mealer for a great book "A BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND" for bringing this wonderful inspiring story to the world. I could ever wonder why our youth today do not have that kind of ability like Kamkwamba..

visit http://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com  to read further on this amazing true story of a man.