In changing mindsets, William knew education was important. Together with his friends in the Wimbe Youth Friendly Health Services Club, they learned about the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. To broach this taboo topic to the other villagers, they put up a light-hearted play to stress the importance of testing. William did not force people to stop believing in magic. He wanted people to change their mindsets through self-realization and knowledge acquisition.

Even when his windmill was blamed for the drought, William graciously accepted the blame knowing that it provided comfort to the people when they could pinpoint the cause at something tangible. He allowed the very people who blamed his windmill to charge their mobile phones and listen to the radio using the electricity generated from it. Over time, people learned what the windmill could do, especially once they started receiving uninterrupted radio entertainment.

For the villagers, the radio was very important for it was their main connection to the rest of the world and a source of entertainment. Using something familiar, William made the windmill less foreign to the villagers. He proved to them that despite living off the grid, they too could have electricity, and a more reliable source in fact. At his own house, he drilled a borehole and used a solar-powered pump to obtain clean water. He opened this system to the rest of the village so that the women no longer had to travel two hours a day to collect water from the public well. The integration of renewable energy into the villagers’ everyday life allowed for a smooth transition to the idea of sustainable development. Economic and social development did not have to come at the expense of the environment; they were complementary. And he continues to spread this message through his organization, the Moving Windmills Project.