Written by: Jessica Yembiline, Grade 6
I picked William Kamkwamba for my 6th grade writing assignment because he is a caring person, with a resilient mindset and uses his knowledge. So, without further adieu, let’s begin this article about him. Are you ready?
Do you know the boy who harnessed the wind? Well boy, do I have some things to tell you, from how he was caring to how he was resilient and smart. So let’s dive in this article about his successes. Hang on tight!
Caring
There was a drought in Malawi and William’s parents couldn’t grow their crops, making it that they couldn’t sell them for profit. This caused them have to take him out of his school because they couldn’t afford his education. William was sad watching his family struggle financially, so he went to the library and got a book about windmills. He then followed the instructions and built his own windmill.
His family had enough money to help them because of the windmill profits and the village used it too. As you can see, he loved his family and even through tough times, he helped them. This is why he showed the MYP trait of caring. Now that we went over how he was caring, let’s move on to why he was resilient, and how he did not give up on his dreams.
Resilience
For a quick recap, he wasn’t going to school because of the drought, so then he built the windmill. But it wasn’t as easy as it
sounds. People from the village told him he was crazy and stupid, and that he would never succeed. But he was determined to build it for a better future.
He messed up many times and didn’t have the pieces he needed, but with trial and error he managed to build his windmill wit only used scrap pieces. You can now see how and why he was being a resilient person as he was building the windmill.
Knowledgeable
Last but not least, we’ll discuss how he was a knowledgeable person. Also don’t worry, the article is finishing up before you
know it!
So William wasn’t going to school anymore because of the drought in Malawi, the village he lived in. He had to go to
the village library for education and read books, and among the books, he found a book about windmills. But the problem was that
it was in English, and he couldn’t understand English, so he had to use the pictures from the book to build it.
He used bicycles, and old metal parts and scrap pieces that were thrown away, which is proving the quote, “One man trash is another man’s
treasure.”
He had to build it alone because lots of people didn’t believe it would work. After perseverance, he acknowledged his goal
after many tries. We can see how William showed knowledge when he was building the windmill throughout his journey.
You can see how William Kamkwamba was caring because he built a windmill for his family and the village. He was resilient and didn’t give up, and he used his wits to build it. I think more people should inspire to be like him and do small stuff like bring in the food, or make the table, because those small things can help people. I picked William Kamkwamba as he displayed care, resilience, and wits through his work.
To read another inspirational story, check out this article on Simone Biles.
