UGRU Communications
English Level 1
Unit 5
Malawi Windmill Boy with Big Fans
William Kamkwamba educated himself in his local library
By Jude Sheerin
adapted from BBC News
[¶1]The amazing true story of a Malawian teenager who changed his village
by building electric windmills out of junk is the subject of a new book, The
Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.
[¶2]
William Kamkwamba had a dream of bringing electricity and running water
to his village. The need for action was great in 2002 after one of Malawi's worst
droughts, (a long time without rain) which killed thousands of people and left his
family without any food or water.
[¶3]
William had to quit school when he was 14 because his family could not pay
the $80 (290 dirhams) a year fees. However, he kept up his education by using a
local library. William was very interested in science, and his life changed one day
when he picked up an old textbook and saw a picture of a windmill.
[¶4]
William told the BBC News website: "I was very interested when I saw the
windmill could make electricity and pump water.
"I thought: 'That could be a defense against hunger. Maybe I should build one for
myself'." When not helping on his family farm, he worked on building a windmill,
often by the light of a candle in the evenings.
[¶5]
But the people in his community did not understand what he was trying to
do. "Many, including my mother, thought I was going crazy," he recalls. "They had
never seen a windmill before."
Reading
Integrated Skills Strand
A. Kanell
UGRU Communications
[¶6]
English Level 1
Unit 5
His neighbors could not understand why
William was spending so much time digging
through people’s rubbish.
"So I told them I was only making something for
juju [magic].' Then they said: 'Ah, I see.'"
[¶7]
William, who is now 22 years old, put
together a windmill from things people had
thrown in the garbage, including old bicycle and
machine parts.
[¶8]
The finished product - a 5-m (16-ft) tall
blue-gum-tree wood tower did not seem very
important.
[¶9]
But his neighbors' were amazed when
William climbed up the windmill and hooked up a
Many, including my
car light bulb. As the blades began to turn in the
wind, the bulb turned on and the people watching
went wild. Soon William’s windmill was pumping
mother, thought I was going
crazy
power into his family's mud brick house.
[¶10]
Before long, neighbors were lining up to
William Kamkwamba
charge their mobile phones.
[¶11]
People all over the world learned about William’s story when a reporter
from the Daily Times newspaper wrote an article about him in November 2006.
[¶12]
Meanwhile, William brought the first clean, drinkable water source to the
entire area around his village by making a solar
pump (a pump powered by the sun). Then, he
built a new windmill, called the Green Machine,
which turned a water pump to give water to his
family’s fields.
[¶13]
Before long, visitors were coming from
miles around to look at William’s magetsi a
mphepo - "electric wind".
“William Kamkwamba's achievements
[¶14]
William has flown all over the
with wind energy show what one
world telling his story. He is now on a
person, with an inspired idea, can do to
scholarship at the elite African
tackle the crisis we face.”
Leadership Academy in Johannesburg,
Al Gore
South Africa.
[¶15]
He remembers his
excitement using a computer for the
Reading
Integrated Skills Strand
A. Kanell
UGRU Communications
English Level 1
Unit 5
first time. "I had never seen the internet, it was amazing," he says. "I Googled about
windmills and found so much information."
[¶16]
But while William is now famous all over
the world, he wants to return home after his
studies.
[¶17]
William’s goal is to finish bringing power,
not just to the rest of his village, but to all
Malawians, only 2% of whom have electricity.
"I want to help my country and apply the
knowledge I've learned," he says. "I feel there's
lots of work to be done."
William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
(left) spent a year writing the book
Answer the questions from the reading. Use no more than 7 words.
1. Where is William from? _______________________________
2. What is the title of the book about William?
_________________________________________________
Who is the writer of the book? _________________________
3. Why did William quit school? __________________________
________________________________________________________
4. Why did William’s neighbors think he was crazy? ________________
________________________________________________________
5. What did William use to make his windmill? ____________________
________________________________________________________
6. How did William become famous? ____________________________
________________________________________________________
7. What does the Green Machine do? ___________________________
________________________________________________________
8. What does “magetsi a mphepo” mean? _______________________
Reading
Integrated Skills Strand
A. Kanell
UGRU Communications
English Level 1
Unit 5
9. Where does William attend school now? _________________________
10. What does William want to do in the future? ______________________
___________________________________________________________
Pronoun Reference – Who or what do the following pronouns refer to?
1. his [¶2]________________________________
2. them[¶6] ______________________________
3. him [¶11] _______________________________
4. it [¶15] _________________________________
Vocabulary – What do the following words mean?
1. Drought [¶1] ____________________________________________
Drought is a
a. noun
b. verb
c. adjective
2. Solar [¶12] _____________________________________________
Solar is a
a. noun
b. verb
c. adjective
3. Windmill (throughout the reading) ____________________________
Windmill is a
a. noun
b. verb
c. adjective
4. Elite [¶14] ______________________________________________
Elite is a
Reading
a. noun
b. verb
c. adjective
Integrated Skills Strand
A. Kanell