His inspiring experience prompted me to update this blog.

He was just 14 when he built his first windmill.

William Kamkwamba lived in a small Malawian village where there was no electricity. People in his village depended on tobacco farming.

His family of 20 did not have much. He even had to drop out of school because his parents could not afford to pay his yearly $80 worth of tuition fees.

There was much wind in his place, so he thought of putting that into good use for his community. He borrowed a book about windmills from the local library, then he set out to built a small windmill bicycle wheels, tractor fans, car batteries and other junk that he could fit in. He was able to generate electricity for his small community to power up light bulbs, pump water and even charge cellphones and power up the radio.

He was only able to construct his first working windmill in just two months.

Because of this, William’s work had caught the attention of local and international journalists. Not long he was several invitations in the US, to simply share this experience.

He is now out of his teens and he had already built and upgraded several windmills in his place. He was also able to continue his education through an elite African school.