A Young African Genius Creates Electricity for His Family and Village On A Shoestring
I want as many people as possible to know, and understand that 'The Poor' have as many creative, innovative people in their ranks, as anyone else. That if someone is a genius, and born into poverty (or war or catastrophe) that genius doesn't just disappear. The tragedy of it is that mostly, such people won't get to express it, and that is a major loss to the world.
William Kamkwamba is a youngster from rural Malawi, born into a family of small farmers in a village of 60 families. His family had to stop sending him to secondary school (i.e the schooling you get ages 11-18) because they couldnt afford to pay $80 per year. So his formal education ended at- 12?13?14? William, however, is a genius. He was determined to receive an education somehow. He would go to the public library, and take out books, paricularly science books. Though they were printed in English, which he couldn't read much.So he would try to learn the words via the diagrams.
So when the village started suffering starvation because of crop failure through drought, he decided to do something about it. He saw a book which said windmills could be used to pump water, and generate electricity.He managed to get hold of some books in a library in English (which, remember, is not his first language and which at the time he could barely read).Using persistence, the diagrams and above all HIS BRAIN he worked out how to put together a windmill using scraps from junkyards. He used a tractor fan, pvc pipes, shock absorbers,bycycle frame, pvc blades, bycycle generator. As these items were scrap, we can imagine the condition they were in. He had no help- in fact peope in the village thought he was crazy.Including his Mum!
William just knew he wanted to build a windmill to have water and electricity.Through persistence, trial and error, depite the family being down to one meal a day, he struggled and completed his first windmill in 2 months. HE WAS 14 YEARS OLD. He has subsequently built other windmills. He worked out how to do an electrical circuit- complete with breakers- to get electricity in the family home. As time has gone on and he has learnt and refined the process, there is a deep water well, solar panels bright lighting in his family compuond. Members of his village have been shown how to build windmills.There is a project to create windmills, electricity, irrigation ad acces to education for other families. his story was spread, first by journalists, then the blogosphere, and he has ended up being a speaker at TED and is attending a school in Africa grooming him and other to be ethical leaders.
I'm a great believer in human ingenuity and the human spirit.
William,and people like him are the ones we talk about in the West when we talk about 'sub-Saharan Africa and its problems'. This great continent is covered in the news as consisting of aids-war-famine-disease-corruption-wildlife. Its people are presented as victims of all of this, with a few exceptions. Hmm. Well, there are approximately 53 countries in Africa, its a continent so huge you could plonk the landmass of the US or India in it and still have room, and it has at least 2,500 ethnic groups. And I'm pretty confident, that it has thousands of youngsters like William.
See his talk at the TED conference this year here:
http://www.ted.com/talks/william_kamkwamba_how_i_harnessed_the_wind.html
William Kamkwamba is a youngster from rural Malawi, born into a family of small farmers in a village of 60 families. His family had to stop sending him to secondary school (i.e the schooling you get ages 11-18) because they couldnt afford to pay $80 per year. So his formal education ended at- 12?13?14? William, however, is a genius. He was determined to receive an education somehow. He would go to the public library, and take out books, paricularly science books. Though they were printed in English, which he couldn't read much.So he would try to learn the words via the diagrams.
So when the village started suffering starvation because of crop failure through drought, he decided to do something about it. He saw a book which said windmills could be used to pump water, and generate electricity.He managed to get hold of some books in a library in English (which, remember, is not his first language and which at the time he could barely read).Using persistence, the diagrams and above all HIS BRAIN he worked out how to put together a windmill using scraps from junkyards. He used a tractor fan, pvc pipes, shock absorbers,bycycle frame, pvc blades, bycycle generator. As these items were scrap, we can imagine the condition they were in. He had no help- in fact peope in the village thought he was crazy.Including his Mum!
William just knew he wanted to build a windmill to have water and electricity.Through persistence, trial and error, depite the family being down to one meal a day, he struggled and completed his first windmill in 2 months. HE WAS 14 YEARS OLD. He has subsequently built other windmills. He worked out how to do an electrical circuit- complete with breakers- to get electricity in the family home. As time has gone on and he has learnt and refined the process, there is a deep water well, solar panels bright lighting in his family compuond. Members of his village have been shown how to build windmills.There is a project to create windmills, electricity, irrigation ad acces to education for other families. his story was spread, first by journalists, then the blogosphere, and he has ended up being a speaker at TED and is attending a school in Africa grooming him and other to be ethical leaders.
Click to viewI'm a great believer in human ingenuity and the human spirit.
William,and people like him are the ones we talk about in the West when we talk about 'sub-Saharan Africa and its problems'. This great continent is covered in the news as consisting of aids-war-famine-disease-corruption-wildlife. Its people are presented as victims of all of this, with a few exceptions. Hmm. Well, there are approximately 53 countries in Africa, its a continent so huge you could plonk the landmass of the US or India in it and still have room, and it has at least 2,500 ethnic groups. And I'm pretty confident, that it has thousands of youngsters like William.
See his talk at the TED conference this year here:
http://www.ted.com/talks/william_kamkwamba_how_i_harnessed_the_wind.html