• Books
  • Film
  • Media
    • Daily News Egypt
  • Music
  • Politics
  • Religion
  • Sirgo’s
  • Social
  • Sport
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • Writing
  • By Me
  • About

Sirgo’s Labyrinth

~ On Egypt news & other things on my mind

Sirgo’s Labyrinth

Tag Archives: jon stewart

Teenagers that inspire the world

17 Saturday Oct 2009

Posted by Ssirgany in Books, Media, Social

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

babar ali, bbc, bryan mealer, education, energy, family, famine, finance, hunger to learn, india, innovation, jon stewart, learn, malawi, masitala, money, murshidabad, poverty, sarah el sirgany, school, starvation, the boy who harnessed the wind, village, West Bengal, william kamkwamba, windmill, young

Over the past week, I came across two stories of two teenagers who battled the odds to bring innovative solutions to problems plaguing their communities.

The first is of William Kamkwamba, from Masitala, Malawi. At the age of 14, when he was forced to leave school because his family didn’t have the money to pay for his education, he built a windmill. He saw the picture in a book in the village library and used materials he found in a scrap yard to build the electricity-generating structure.

At the time Kamkwamba could barely understand English and mainly relied on diagrams to learn about sciences. At the time Malawi was hit by a famine that brought his village and his family to the brink of starvation.

Now at the age of 22, after receiving funds to finish his secondary education and helping build other windmills in his village, Kamkwamba has chronicled his journey in the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind with the help of journalist Bryan Mealer. Kamkwamba is now studying for his SAT to continue his education in the US.

Jon Stewart interviewed Kamkwamba about his book on Oct. 7.

The second story is of Babar Ali, a 16-year-old from Murshidabad in West Bengal, India. Ali is dubbed by BBC as the world’s youngest headmaster. Being one of the privileged few in his village to receive an education, Ali has decided since age 9 to share this privilege.

Every day after returning from school, he teaches other kids in the village, who can’t afford schooling, what he had learnt earlier in the day. Over the years, this project has sprawled to include 800 kids of all ages, sometimes illiterate adults, and 10 other student-teachers. The make shift school is Ali’s family’s backyard.

Here’s a link to the BBC story, part of the Hunger to Learn series.

It’s this evident ‘hunger to learn’ that was so inspiring in both stories. Kamkwamba wasn’t deterred by his family’s inability to pay for his education when he was 14. In India, 800 kids are seeking an education – not a degree – by going to this makeshift school, usually after a long day of work, thanks to an initiative by 16-year-old Ali.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • More
  • Reddit
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

مذكرات التحرير

BUY I Diari Della Rivoluzione

Top Posts

  • The addictive cycle of TV news
  • عن الفقدان والأمل
  • Jumbled memories of loss and hope
  • Realizing death
  • هو أنا بقيت بأشتم ليه
  • Five months in news

Pages

  • About
  • By Me

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 89,169 other followers

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

RSS Feed RSS - Comments

Recent Comments

steel panther tour on Kahk: It’s not about eating; i…
kshihabi on عن الفقدان والأمل
car rims on Sexuality, Eroticism &…
cleaning chrome rims on Spinning the flotilla story as…
إبراهيم علي on هو أنا بقيت بأشتم ليه

On Twitter/Ssirgany

  • RT @LinaAlhathloul: Public prosecutor and Loujain can still appeal. 2 weeks ago
  • RT @LinaAlhathloul: BREAKING : Today @LoujainHathloul was sentenced to -5 years and 8 months in prison - A suspension of 2 years and 10 mo… 2 weeks ago
  • RT @tamaraqiblawi: Health Minister announces new covid strain is here in Lebanon — arrived on a London flight on Dec 21. Daily tally has su… 3 weeks ago
  • RT @hossambahgat: Part of my interview with @camanpour together with @Jeky_Kelly on the campaign to #freeEIPRstaff twitter.com/camanpour/stat… 1 month ago
  • RT @stephenfry: A good person very wrongly imprisoned. Find out more here – FreeKarim.com #FreeKarimEnnarah #FreeEIPRstaff @EIP… 1 month ago
  • Gasser has refrained from being a public figure, and might find this article too divulging, but he would perhaps to… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 month ago
  • EIPR director Gasser Abdel Razek told lawyers today he was in solitary confinement, his head was shaved, his belong… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 month ago
  • RT @ExtSpoxEU: Egypt: EU conveyed to Cairo significant concerns about arrests of members of @EIPR who provides important services to 🇪🇬peop… 1 month ago
  • RT @hackneylad: Karim Ennarah - a ferociously smart researcher and advocate for the basic rights and freedoms of his fellow citizens - is t… 1 month ago
  • RT @ACLU: Because President Trump has cozied up to strongmen leaders across the globe, the Egyptian government believes it can jail the cou… 1 month ago
  • RT @hossambahgat: Today I go back to leading @EIPR till the release of its leaders. Founding #EIPR in 2002 and managing it for 10 years is… 1 month ago
  • RT @MadaMasr: Security forces arrested Gasser Abdel Razek, the executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, from his… 1 month ago
  • RT @katie_polglase: We're still waiting on a response from the Nigerian authorities to our investigation. We have examined hours of footage… 1 month ago
  • Karim is a brilliant researcher doing much needed work under stifling restrictions on human rights defenders, lawye… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 month ago
  • RT @SimonaFoltyn: When you're recording a segment about the planned US troop drawdown in #Iraq and a rocket, followed by CRAM projectiles,… 1 month ago
  • RT @ayaelb: Drugs for diabetes and blood pressure, anti-depressants and fever pills used in COVID-19 treatment have disappeared from shelve… 2 months ago
  • RT @jmhansler: NEW: @SecPompeo announced Tuesday that the US had formally notified Congress of its intent to sell approximately $23 billion… 2 months ago
  • The Husband-and-Wife Team Behind the Leading Vaccine to Solve Covid-19 nyti.ms/32wbPVS 2 months ago
  • RT @munaluqman: Jannat is a smart young girl from #Taiz #Yemen studying & supporting her family I had a video call with her we surprised… 2 months ago
  • السعودية الوحيدة خليجيا لم تهنئ بايدن بالفوز وسط تساؤلات مغردين arabic.cnn.com/middle-east/ar… via @cnnarabic 2 months ago

Flickr Photos

S OP Anti SH_1487F OP Anti SH_1510S OP Anti SH_1469F OP Anti SH_1508F OP Anti SH_1457F OP Anti SH_1450F OP Anti SH_1451F OP Anti SH_1415F OP Anti SH_1409F OP Anti SH_1382
More Photos

Blogroll

  • 3arabawy
  • Al Khan
  • Backpacking to Babylon
  • bigHead
  • Cairo Freeze!
  • Chatoyant Crumbs
  • CHLOÉ & CLEO
  • Egyptian Chronicles
  • Inanities
  • Kirmalak
  • Ma3t
  • Manal and Alaa's bit bucket
  • Moftasa.net
  • Nadia El-Awady
  • Paging Mr Driftwood
  • Poetechnique
  • Rantings of a Sandmonkey
  • Sibilant Egypt
  • The Arabist
  • The Boursa Exchange
  • The Traveller Within
  • لستُ أدرى
  • وَيلك دوت نت
  • أسد
  • جبهة التهييس الشعبية

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Pages

  • About
  • By Me

Blog at WordPress.com.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
%d bloggers like this: