William Kamkwamba
William Kamkwamba
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About William Kamkwamba
William Kamkwamba (born August 5, 1987) is a Malawian secondary school student, 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. After leaving school due to his family not being able to afford the tuition (~80USD), he took up self-education by going to his village's library. There, he found the book Using Energy and in it discovered a picture and explanation of windmills. His story is told in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope, written with journalist Bryan Mealer and published in 2009. Kamkwamba took part in the first event celebrating his particular type of ingenuity called Maker Faire Africa, in Ghana in August 2009. Kamkwamba is one of four recipients of the 2010 GO Ingenuity Award, an annual prize awarded by the Santa Monica based nonprofit GO Campaign to inventors, artists, and makers to promote the sharing of their innovations and skills with marginalized youth in developing nations. With the grant, Kamkwamba will hold workshops for youth in his home village in Malawi, teaching them how to make windmills and repair water pumps, both of which proved to be transformative skills for this young African leader. When the Daily Times newspaper in Blantyre wrote a story on Kamkwamba's windmills in November 2006, the story circulated through the blogosphere, and TED conference director Emeka Okafor invited Kamkwamba to speak at TEDGlobal 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania as a guest. His speech moved the audience, and several venture capitalists at the conference pledged to help finance his secondary education. His story was covered by Sarah Childress for the Wall Street Journal. He became a student at African Bible College Christian Academy in Lilongwe, but is now on a scholarship at the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa. Among other appearances, Kamkwamba was interviewed on The Daily Show on October 7, 2009 and by social news website Reddit. His book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, was chosen as the common reading book for the 2010-11 school year at the University of Florida and Boise State University
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