William Kamkwamba (born 5 August 1987) is a Malawian inventor, engineer, and author. He gained renown in Malawi in 2001, when, at the age of 14, he built an electricity‑producing windmill from scrap materials and spare parts, working from diagrams in a library book called Using Energy and adapting them to fit his needs. The windmill powered several lights and radios in his family’s home and allowed neighbours to charge mobile phones.
Kamkwamba was born into a farming family in rural Malawi and grew up in the village of Masitala, near Wimbe, in Kasungu District. When a severe famine struck Malawi in 2001–02, his family could no longer afford his secondary school fees, and he was forced to drop out. Determined to continue learning, he began spending long hours in the local library, where he discovered his interest in electricity and wind power and decided to build a windmill to provide his family with reliable light and power.
Local farmers, teachers, and journalists soon came to see the spinning windmill, and Kamkwamba’s story spread throughout Malawi and then internationally. In November 2006, The Daily Times in Blantyre, the country’s commercial capital, published an article on his windmill project; the story circulated widely online and led TED conference curator Emeka Okafor to invite him to speak at TEDGlobal 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania. His talk moved the audience, and several supporters helped secure funding for his education and for further community projects.
With philanthropic support, Kamkwamba completed his secondary education and later attended the African Leadership Academy in South Africa. He went on to study at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, graduating in 2014; during his time there he was also inducted into the Sphinx Senior Society, Dartmouth’s oldest all‑male senior society. Beyond his first windmill, he helped build additional wind turbines and a solar‑powered water pump that supplied clean drinking water and irrigation in his home area, including a 12‑metre (39‑foot) windmill and systems in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi.
Kamkwamba’s life and work are chronicled in his co‑authored memoir The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope (2009), written with journalist Bryan Mealer; the story has also been adapted into a young readers’ edition and a picture book. In 2013, a feature‑length documentary about him, William and the Windmill, won the Documentary Feature Grand Jury Award at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival. That same year, Time magazine included William Kamkwamba in its list of “30 People Under 30 Changing the World.”
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kamkwamba
http://www.ted.com/speakers/william_kamkwamba
