"WHILE THIS WAS HAPPENING, something else amazing was taking place without my knowledge. The day after the Daily Times article ran, a Malawian in Lilongwe named Soyapi Mumba brought the article to his office. Soyapi worked as a software engineer and coder at Baobab Health, an American-run NGO that’s working to computerize Malawi’s health care system, which is very unorganized with its stacks of old record books. One of Soyapi’s bosses, a tall American named Mike McKay, liked the article about my windmill so much that he wrote about me on his blog Hacktivate. That blog entry caught the attention of Emeka Okafor, a famous Nigerian blogger and entrepreneur, who was program director of a big conference called TEDGlobal 2007."
- William Kamkwamba
Others had heard about Will all around, including the director of a famous conference dedicated to leaders in technology, doctors, scientists, people with creative ideas and inventors. He thought of it as a good idea for William to join and present at the conference. William flew to Arusha, Tanzania, where the T.E.D. (Technology, Engineering and Design) Conference took place.
"I'm William Kamkwamba and I'm from Malawi," Will stated. Here, Will was first introduced to the internet. "William have you ever seen the internet?" Tom asked. "No" ,Will replied. "In a private conference room, Tom sat me down at his computer and explained the track pad, how the motion of my fingers guided the arrow on the screen. 'This is Google,' [Tom] said. 'You can find anything.'" William had never spoken in front of a large crowd, especially a crowd of about 450 people. Pictures were shown on a slideshow and Will was asked to describe them in English. After his speech was over he expected the crowd of 450 to laugh, but instead a roar of clapping was heard. "I try and I made it", William's last words were before his presentation concluded. All he wanted to do was help his community and William did a good job at sticking to his goals. "Africans bend what little they have to their will every day. Using creativity, they overcome Africa's challenges. Where the world sees trash, Africa recycles. Where the world sees junk, Africa sees rebirth." William took this quote and applied it to his life in every way possible. He took trash and made a masterpiece of it. What was once thought of as a joke had now become a reality. William made the windmill not selfishly, but to help his community and give back. |
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1.| Early Ages | 2.| Age 13 | 3.| The Bicycle Dynamo | 4.| The Famine | 5.| Dr. Mchazime | 6.| The T.E.D. Conference