"Lion lights"

Have you ever imagined receiving a college scholarship in middle school? Well Richard Turere did, all because if his creation for scaring the lions away from the cows, as well as many other animals in Kenya.

   It all started just when he was a young boy, at that time being seven years old. His family herded many different animals near the Nairobi National Park, such as zebras and cows. Meanwhile, lions that also lurked through there would follow some of his animals. Everything was fine, except for their major issue; lions attacking the cows. It upset Richard because he cared about equally for his animals, but Richard started to dislike the lions when they started messing with the cows. For a long time he tolerated it, but he realized that wouldn’t help anything, so he started killing the lions. That worked for a while but he realized that would just make things worse, but one night, everything changed.

   Richard was walking around his “farm” in the night, checking on his livestock. He had a torch in his hand, and he noticed the lions didn’t hurt him! That’s when he realized, that was the way to stop the lions from hurting the cows! But instead of using his torch, he decided he’d make a contraption called “lion lights” so that he wouldn’t have to go outside every night. Richard setup a system that would lie atop the fence that the cows stayed. Although, he had to literally break apart his mom’s radio, it still payed off. From then on, the lions never bothered the cows.

   One day, his neighbor had Richard’s same problem so Richard set that up for him, as well, and soon enough, so many people were asking for Richard’s help. Richard helped set up his contraption throughout all of Kenya and even got offered a college scholarship in one of Kenya’s best colleges! Richard got so famous and TED recognized him for his work and offered him to come on the show. That was Richard’s first time going to America. He even got to go on his own jet!

   Richard has now decided that when he grows up, he wants to be an aircraft engineer. Would you ever take so much time into something?