Samafal Posted July 22, 2011 CNN) -- William Kamkwamba dreamed of powering his village with the only resource that was freely available to him. His native Malawi had gone through one of its worst droughts seven years ago, killing thousands. His family and others were surviving on one meal a day. The red soil in his Masitala hometown was parched, leaving his father, a farmer, without any income. But amid all the shortages, one thing was still abundant. Wind. "I wanted to do something to help and change things," he said. "Then I said to myself, 'If they can make electricity out of wind, I can try, too.'" Kamkwamba was kicked out of school when he couldn't pay $80 in school fees, and he spent his days at the library, where a book with photographs of windmills caught his eye. "I thought, this thing exists in this book, it means someone else managed to build this machine," he said. Armed with the book, the then-14-year-old taught himself to build windmills. He scoured through junkyards for items, including bicycle parts, plastic pipes, tractor fans and car batteries. For the tower, he collected wood from blue-gum trees. "Everyone laughed at me when I told them I was building a windmill. They thought I was crazy," he said. "Then I started telling them I was just playing with the parts. That sounded more normal." Don't Miss Malawi halts nursing brain drain Malawi's Mutharika wins second term That was 2002. Now, he has five windmills, the tallest at 37 feet. He built one at an area school that he used to teach classes on windmill-building. The windmills generate electricity and pump water in his hometown, north of the capital, Lilongwe. Neighbors regularly trek across the dusty footpaths to his house to charge their cellphones. Others stop by to listen to Malawian reggae music blaring from a radio. When he started building the first windmill in 2002, word that he was "crazy" spread all over his village. Some people said he was bewitched -- a common description for people with perplexing behavior in some African cultures. "All of us, even my mother, thought that he had gone mad," said his sister Doris Kamkwamba. Villagers would surround him to snicker and point, Kamkwamba said. Ignoring them, he would quietly bolt pieces using a screwdriver made of a heated nail attached to a corncob. The heat -- from both the crowd and the melted, flattened pipes he used as blades -- did not deter him. Three months later, his first windmill churned to life as relief swept over him. As the blades whirled, a bulb attached to the windmill flickered on. "I wanted to finish it just to prove them wrong," he said. "I knew people would then stop thinking I was crazy." Kamkwamba, now 22, is a student at the African Leadership Academy, an elite South African school for young leaders. Donors pay for his education. His story has turned him into a globetrotter. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, an avid advocate of green living, has applauded his work. Kamkwamba is invited to events worldwide to share his experience with entrepreneurs. During a recent trip to Palm Springs, California, he saw a real windmill for the first time -- lofty and majestic -- a far cry from the wobbly, wooden structures that spin in his backyard. Former Associated Press correspondent Bryan Mealer, who covered Africa, wrote a book, "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind," after hearing Kamkwamba's story. The book was released in the United States last week. Mealer, a native of San Antonio, Texas, said he lived with Kamkwamba in his village for months to write the book. The story was a refreshing change after years of covering bloody conflicts in the region, Mealer said. Kamkwamba is part of a generation of Africans who are not waiting for their governments or aid groups to come to their rescue, according to the author. "They are seizing opportunities and technology, and finding solutions to their own problems," Mealer said. "One of the keys of his success is ... he's never wanted to rest on his laurels." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Samafal Posted July 22, 2011 Malawi windmill boy with big fans William Kamkwamba up one of his windmills William Kamkwamba educated himself in his local library By Jude Sheerin BBC News The extraordinary true story of a Malawian teenager who transformed his village by building electric windmills out of junk is the subject of a new book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. Self-taught William Kamkwamba has been feted by climate change campaigners like Al Gore and business leaders the world over. His against-all-odds achievements are all the more remarkable considering he was forced to quit school aged 14 because his family could no longer afford the $80-a-year (£50) fees. When he returned to his parents' small plot of farmland in the central Malawian village of Masitala, his future seemed limited. But this was not another tale of African potential thwarted by poverty. Defence against hunger The teenager had a dream of bringing electricity and running water to his village. William Kamkwamba and one of his windmills Many, including my mother, thought I was going crazy - people thought I was smoking marijuana William Kamkwamba And he was not prepared to wait for politicians or aid groups to do it for him. The need for action was even greater in 2002 following one of Malawi's worst droughts, which killed thousands of people and left his family on the brink of starvation. Unable to attend school, he kept up his education by using a local library. Fascinated by science, his life changed one day when he picked up a tattered textbook and saw a picture of a windmill. Mr Kamkwamba told the BBC News website: "I was very interested when I saw the windmill could make electricity and pump water. "I thought: 'That could be a defence against hunger. Maybe I should build one for myself'." When not helping his family farm maize, he plugged away at his prototype, working by the light of a paraffin lamp in the evenings. But his ingenious project met blank looks in his community of about 200 people. "Many, including my mother, thought I was going crazy," he recalls. "They had never seen a windmill before." Shocks Neighbours were further perplexed at the youngster spending so much time scouring rubbish tips. Al Gore William Kamkwamba's achievements with wind energy show what one person, with an inspired idea, can do to tackle the crisis we face Al Gore "People thought I was smoking marijuana," he said. "So I told them I was only making something for juju [magic].' Then they said: 'Ah, I see.'" Mr Kamkwamba, who is now 22 years old, knocked together a turbine from spare bicycle parts, a tractor fan blade and an old shock absorber, and fashioned blades from plastic pipes, flattened by being held over a fire. "I got a few electric shocks climbing that [windmill]," says Mr Kamkwamba, ruefully recalling his months of painstaking work. The finished product - a 5-m (16-ft) tall blue-gum-tree wood tower, swaying in the breeze over Masitala - seemed little more than a quixotic tinkerer's folly. But his neighbours' mirth turned to amazement when Mr Kamkwamba scrambled up the windmill and hooked a car light bulb to the turbine. As the blades began to spin in the breeze, the bulb flickered to life and a crowd of astonished onlookers went wild. Soon the whiz kid's 12-watt wonder was pumping power into his family's mud brick compound. 'Electric wind' Out went the paraffin lanterns and in came light bulbs and a circuit breaker, made from nails and magnets off an old stereo speaker, and a light switch cobbled together from bicycle spokes and flip-flop rubber. Before long, locals were queuing up to charge their mobile phones. WINDS OF CHANGE 2002: Drought strikes; he leaves school; builds 5m windmill 2006: Daily Times writes article on him; he builds a 12m windmill 2007: Brings solar power to his village and installs solar pump Mid-2008: Builds Green Machine windmill, pumping well water Sep 2008: Attends inaugural African Leadership Academy class Mid-2009: Builds replica of original 5m windmill Mr Kamkwamba's story was sent hurtling through the blogosphere when a reporter from the Daily Times newspaper in Blantyre wrote an article about him in November 2006. Meanwhile, he installed a solar-powered mechanical pump, donated by well-wishers, above a borehole, adding water storage tanks and bringing the first potable water source to the entire region around his village. He upgraded his original windmill to 48-volts and anchored it in concrete after its wooden base was chewed away by termites. Then he built a new windmill, dubbed the Green Machine, which turned a water pump to irrigate his family's field. Before long, visitors were traipsing from miles around to gawp at the boy prodigy's magetsi a mphepo - "electric wind". As the fame of his renewable energy projects grew, he was invited in mid-2007 to the prestigious Technology Entertainment Design conference in Arusha, Tanzania. Cheetah generation He recalls his excitement using a computer for the first time at the event. "I had never seen the internet, it was amazing," he says. "I Googled about windmills and found so much information." Onstage, the native Chichewa speaker recounted his story in halting English, moving hard-bitten venture capitalists and receiving a standing ovation. Bryan Mealer (left) with William Kamkwamba William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer (left) spent a year writing the book A glowing front-page portrait of him followed in the Wall Street Journal. He is now on a scholarship at the elite African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa. Mr Kamkwamba - who has been flown to conferences around the globe to recount his life-story - has the world at his feet, but is determined to return home after his studies. The home-grown hero aims to finish bringing power, not just to the rest of his village, but to all Malawians, only 2% of whom have electricity. "I want to help my country and apply the knowledge I've learned," he says. "I feel there's lots of work to be done." Former Associated Press news agency reporter Bryan Mealer had been reporting on conflict across Africa for five years when he heard Mr Kamkwamba's story. The incredible tale was the kind of positive story Mealer, from New York, had long hoped to cover. The author spent a year with Mr Kamkwamba writing The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, which has just been published in the US. Mealer says Mr Kamkwamba represents Africa's new "cheetah generation", young people, energetic and technology-hungry, who are taking control of their own destiny. "Spending a year with William writing this book reminded me why I fell in love with Africa in the first place," says Mr Mealer, 34. "It's the kind of tale that resonates with every human being and reminds us of our own potential." Can it be long before the film rights to the triumph-over-adversity story are snapped up, and William Kamkwamba, the boy who dared to dream, finds himself on the big screen? We asked for your reaction to this story. Please find a selection of your comments below. Kudos to this lad for his perseverance. The answers to Africa's problems lie within - not from w Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NASSIR Posted July 22, 2011 Necessity is the mother of invention. Thanks for sharing it with us. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
