In a quiet rural town in Nigeria, a small revolution is taking place, and its leaders are barely tall enough to reach the workbench. Children, some as young as six, are taking plastic bottles, broken electronics, and other discarded items, and transforming them into functional mini windmills that generate electricity for their homes.
This grassroots innovation is more than just a creative science project as it’s tackling two pressing challenges at once: plastic pollution and energy poverty.
A New Generation of Climate Innovators
At the heart of this movement is the Winds of Change Program, an environmental tech initiative by Kids in LET, a non-profit empowering children in underserved Nigerian communities with STEM-for-Climate skills. We aim to equip young people to fight plastic pollution and climate change—locally and globally.
Over the past six months, the program has brought together dozens of bright, curious minds in different communities to explore renewable energy. Using discarded fans, old wires, and waste plastics, these young innovators learned how wind energy works and applied smart recycling techniques to create working windmill models.
Learning by Doing—and Leading
Under patient guidance, the children handled soldering irons, assembled circuits, and tested their turbines. Along the way, they discovered how climate change affects their communities, why clean energy matters, and how the trash around them could be repurposed into something powerful.
For many, it was their first time seeing STEM in action—and being the engineer behind it.
“I never knew Coke bottles could generate electricity,” said a 10-year-old from Obiagu community in Enugu State, proudly showing off her homemade wind turbine.
So far, more than 250 children across three Nigerian states have joined the program, building over 30 functional prototypes, inspiring their families to recycle, and turning what was once seen as waste into tools for progress.
From Projects to Movements
Beyond the building and tinkering, the program connects these efforts to the bigger picture. Through leadership sessions, the children link their work to global goals like SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy and SDG 13: Climate Action.
To ensure lasting impact, Winds of Change is creating Green Champions Clubs in local schools, aiming to integrate climate and clean energy lessons into the regular science curriculum.
And this is only the start. With more partners, mentors, and supporters, the vision is to expand across Africa, giving more young people the skills and confidence to innovate for the planet.
Because when you teach a child to turn waste into power, you don’t just clean up the streets—you spark a lifelong commitment to building a better world.
