-- William Kamkwamba
This is one of the best stories I have ever seen. I just finished reading the book last night (I had to stay up until 2am to finish it!). To make a long story short, William grew up in a village in Malawi where there was extreme poverty. When he was a teenager, famine struck the village and many people starved to death due to the shortage of crops. At that time, he had to drop out of school because his parents could not afford the $80/per fee. Instead, William spent his days reading books at a local library that contained textbooks donated by the United States. In one of the books, he saw a picture of a windmill and learned through diagrams (he could not read much English at all) how electricity is made.
Using nothing but scrap materials and trash (he even secretly dug up a PVC pipe from a neighbor’s shower drain), he built an electricity generating windmill in his backyard. He put 4 lights in his home and was able to charge villagers’ cell phones, and power a radio, all in a village that had no electricity or running water.
This really is an amazing read – I highly highly recommend it. I have felt quite inspired sharing in this story.
William’s blog