Old Bike And Farm Motor Bring Light To Malawi Village

Fifteen years ago, when darkness used to fall in Yobe Nkosi, a remote village in northern Malawi, children did their school homework by candlelight as there was no electricity

Yobe Nkosi, Malawi, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 31st Aug, 2021 ) :Fifteen years ago, when darkness used to fall in Yobe Nkosi, a remote village in northern Malawi, children did their school homework by candlelight as there was no electricity.

But that started to change in 2006, when villager Colrerd Nkosi finished secondary school in Mzimba, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) away, and returned home -- and found he could no longer live without power.

Aged 23 at the time, Nkosi soon figured out that a stream gushing past the house where he grew up had just enough force to push the pedals on his bicycle.

He created a makeshift dynamo that brought power into his home.

Word spread quickly among the cluster of brick houses and neighbours began paying regular visits to charge their mobile phones.

"I started getting requests for electricity (and) decided to upgrade," said Nkosi, now 38, sawing through machinery on his verandah in blue overalls.