The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.0:13
Every night, William Kamkwaba's sisters would huddle around the faint light of a kerosene lamp to read and study in the hope of a better future.0:28
That was before their brother, who was only 14 at the time, built windmills that brought electricity to his village of Masitala in Malawi, Africa.0:38
Now this self-taught inventor is setting his sights even higher, aiming to light up an entire country.0:50
It all began with the famine of 2001, when food was so scarce in Malawi that 10,000 people died of starvation.0:58
William's family survived on just one meal a day, but they didn't have enough money to afford the $80 a year tuition fees for William's school.1:08
Forced to drop out, he refused to give up and carried on his education from textbooks in the small local library.1:18
There he learned all about electricity and motors.1:27
But it was the COVID of one book in particular that truly captured his imagination.1:30
'With a windmill, I could stay awake at night reading instead of going to bed at 7 with the rest of Malawi,' William realised.1:38
'We'd finally release ourselves from the troubles of darkness and hunger.'1:46
He set about building one from an old bicycle and pieces of scrap metal from tractors.1:51
Ignoring the other villagers, including his mother, who thought he was crazy, over 2 months he managed to assemble a 5-meter-high windmill that supplied enough power to light 4 small light bulbs.1:57
In a country where only 2% of the population has access to electricity, this was like a miracle.2:12
Villagers came from all around to see the electric wind.2:19
With the addition of another windmill that helped irrigate his father's crops, William was transforming his village through renewable energy all by himself.2:23
News of the boy who built windmills spread through blogs and newspaper articles.2:34
Brian Mehler, an American journalist, had spent 5 years in Africa when he heard about William.2:41
He immediately knew that this was the story that he had been waiting for.2:48
And in 2009, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind was published.2:52
Soon influential people started to see that William was a real asset to his country, and before long he was invited to speak at conferences.2:58
He had documentaries made about him, and universities abroad were offering him scholarships.3:07
William is currently studying for a degree in America.3:14
But he plans to return home with more ideas to help his village.3:18
Thanks to generous donations, Masitala now has clean drinking water and solar panels.3:23
William also finished a project to build new classrooms for his old primary school, which is equipped with laptops that run on energy from his windmills.3:30
He still worries about his mother, though.3:40
I haven't solved the problem of firewood, Each day, my mother has no choice but to walk 3 hours to collect a handful of wood to cook the family meal.3:42
It's a walk that gets longer every day as Malawi loses about 500 square kilometres of forest every year due to illegal deforestation.3:52
Experiments with solar ovens made out of tin foil haven't quite worked out yet, so for the moment, William has turned to a more hands-on method.4:02
William Kamkwaba might not have the solution for everything just yet, but he's a shining example of all that can be achieved when just one person dreams of a better world.4:15
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