William's family lacked the $80 annual school fees due to severe famine in 2001, he was forced to drop out of school a few months into his freshman year. he was unable to go to school for five years due to poverty.
He was a simple farmer who had not seen a computer and definitely not many white people in his life, but his mind prevailed and his inventions certainly made lives better.
William Kakwamba was born in August 5, 1987 in Dowa, Malawi and grew up on his family farm in Masitala Village, Wimbe, North East of Malawi's capital city.
Starting at 14, rather than accept his fate, William Kakwamba begun borrowing books from a small community library located at his former primary school. He borrowed an 8th grade American textbook called Using Energy which depicted wind turbines on its cover.. he decided to to build a windmill to power his family's home and remove the need to use Kerosene which provided only smocky, flickering, distant and expensive light after dark. First he built a prototype using a radio motor then his innitial 5-meter windmill out of a broken bicycle, tractor fan blade, old shock absorber and blue gum trees. After hooking the windmill to a car battery for storage, Kakwamba William was able to power four light bulbs and charge neigbours mobile phones, this system was even equipped with homemade light switches and a circuit breaker made from nails, wire, and magnets. The windmill was later extended to 12 meters to better catch the wind above the trees. A third windmill pumped grey water for irrigation.
The projects that followed included clean water, malaria prevention, solar power and lighting for the six homes in his family surrounding; a deep water well with a solar powered pump for clean water, a drip irrigation system, and the outfitting of his village team Wimbe United with their first ever uniforms and shoes. Since receiving their sun and wind-themed uniforms, the team has been on a winning streak that has brought the village together with pride.
The windmill project drew many visitors from kilometers around, including Dr. Hartford Mchazime, Ph.D., the deputy director of the MTTA, the Malawian NGO responsible for the community library. Mchazime brought press, including The Malawi Daily Times, who wrote a long story. Soyapi Mumba and Mike McKay, engineers at Baobab Health Partnership in Malawi blogged about the article, and news of William’s inventions reached Emeka Okafor, program director for TEDGlobal, a prestigious gathering of thinkers and innovators. Okafor searched quite diligently to find William and invite him to the conference as a fellow. William’s presentation led to additional mentors, donors, and companies supporting his education and further projects.
William graduated from Dartmouth College in 2014 and started his tenure at Ideo.org as a Global Fellow. William’s time at Ideo focused on Human Centered Design and sent him around the world working on projects ranging from sanitation in India to gender-based violence prevention in Kenya. He is now working with WiderNet to develop appropriate technology curriculum that will allow people to bridge the gap between “knowing” and “doing”. WiderNet will distribute the content through eGranaries around Malawi and across the continent.
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CLICK HERE FOR WILLIAMS VIDEO >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkde32jt24I&t=138s
