William Kamkwamba

about

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,

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