Wow! What a powerful story!

William Kamkwamba, a boy in rural city in Malawi, Africa, is forced to drop out of school after the deadly 2001 drought nearly killed him and his family and destroyed the little value they had created farming corn and tobacco.  Without the $80 to pay tuition, William turned to the library, where he became fascinated with windmills.

Determined to prevent his family from experiencing the drought driven hunger again, William decided he would produce the electric power needed to pump water to irrigate their fields.

With no money to buy parts, William used materials from a junkyard and his imagination to build this windmill.   Improvising an old bicycle with flattened PVC pipe for blades and a bicycle generator to produce the electricity, William was able to light his room and tell his story to the world.