The Boy Who Brought Water For Farmers Using Junkyard- William Kamkwamba
This article is about a farmer’s boy, who introduced his community to renewable energy, which allowed farmers to nurture their land and brought electricity to the neighborhood. If that’s of any interest, keep on reading.
William was born in 1987 in Wimbe, Malawi, Africa. The main source of income in Wimbe was farming. William was a good student in school, his results allowed him to attend high school at an earlier age. However, in Wimbe high schools, have fees. When William was fourteen Malawi was struck with a severe drought and his family could no longer afford to send him to school, with only one meal a day they barely had enough to eat. Within 5 months of the drought, farmers were starving to death.
As bad as their conditions were, Willam did allow his conditions for him to skip school. A friend would share his school books with William, which helped William to keep up with his school work. As he knew his family would send him back to school as soon as they could afford to. William would visit the library to read book and he came across “Using Energy”. Looking at the pictures of a windmill he decided to build one.
Everyone thought he was crazy, including his mom. He was on a mission to build a windmill using pictures in a book. Because the family did not have any money, William would visit the junkyard across from the school, he was seen digging through the trash. He was looking for old machine parts, PVC, tubes, wires. His mother worried about him thinking that if he would spend too much time at the junkyard, he may not be able to find a wife. His classmate would see him digging through the yard and called out “look there is Kamkwamba, playing in the garbage again”
William regardless of what others thought, kept collecting parts and assembled them as he had seen in the picture. He managed to find a bicycle frame, a pulley, and a plastic pipe, a tractor fan, shock absorber, PVC pipes, he was missing a bicycle dynamo. One day, Willaim and his cousin Gilbert were walking down a street and a bike passed them, the bike had the bicycle dynamo William was looking for. William and his cousin approached the biker but they couldn’t afford to pay for the dynamo. His cousin managed to find 500 kwacha and they bought the dynamo.
William continued to work on his machine. He assembled everything and got ready to test out his machine. A crowd gathered around to see his invention. Among them were the family members and the classmates, pointing at him when he was at the junkyard. As William stood high on the tower that he had built, looking down he saw a crowd looking up at him. He made some final changes and removed the piece of metal that kept blades from turning. He then came back down to the ground and attached a light bulb to the wire, the crowd saw a flicker and then the glow. The light bulb has been lid, people started yelling, “The boy had done it”
His first windmill was generating 12 watts. Enough power for four bulbs and two radios. The design he saw in the book had 3 blades but he decided to use 4 instead. Wanting to help out his father with the drought, he builds another, to pump water. This time, people line up at his house wanting to charge their cellphones.
When he went back to the library to return his book, the librarian asked him if he was able to build a windmill and he said YES. She said that she will come by and see it herself. His story was picked up by the daily times in Blantyre in November 2006, and then by a blog Hacktivate, from there Emeka Okafor, program director for Ted Global Conference saw his story, and William was invited to fly to Arusha, Tanzania for a Ted global event. He was heard by the audience and they offered to help him fulfill his dream of going back to school and building a second windmill.
William completed his high school and then attended the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg South Africa. After graduating from the academy, William went to Dartmouth College in the United States to study Engineering. He also wrote, “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” to share his story and inspire others.
He currently has his hands full by helping farmers with their water pump system, providing solar systems to schools that allow schools to use electricity at night, and he is helping farmers finance their business with the supermarkets which helps farmers, farm and allows them to pay off their loan sooner.
Willam says” “Don’t be afraid of failure, you never know what you will lose from not trying”. Take a lesson from William’s life, do not be afraid, and keep on trying new things, do not allow circumstances in your life to stop you. Take them as a challenge and do not give up.
