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Melinda Gates: Helping the voiceless

(JP/Rita A

Rita A.Widiadana (The Jakarta Post)
Kuala Lumpur
Fri, June 21, 2013

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Melinda Gates: Helping the voiceless (JP/Rita A. Widiadana) (JP/Rita A. Widiadana)

(JP/Rita A. Widiadana)To Melinda Gates, nothing is more inspiring than a woman who finds the strength to raise her voice again and again until people are forced to listen and respond.

'€œTo me, that'€™s what the fight for women'€™s empowerment looks like,'€ she said.

One key to empowerment is to let women decide when to have children.

Melinda spoke with The Jakarta Post in an interview on the sidelines of the recent Women Deliver 2013 conference in Kuala Lumpur, and said that empowering women was about educating them to make choices they wanted to make.

Women, she said, knew what was best for their families. They invested in healthcare, nutritious food and education.

Unfortunately, most women have neither the power nor voice to control their families and even their own lives.

'€œIf women everywhere in the world had the power and voice to determine their futures, the world would be forever transformed,'€ said Gates.

Born Melinda Ann French to aerospace engineer Ray French and Elaine French on Aug. 15, 1964, in Dallas, Texas, she graduated from Duke University in computer science in 1986. She later took a master'€™s degree in business administration with a focus on economics from Duke University'€™s Fuqua school of business.

Melinda took a job at the Microsoft Corporation in 1987 and became the company'€™s top female executive before she married its founder, Bill Gates, in 1994. They have three teenage children.

At the conference, Melinda once again spoke about the importance of family planning. It was the second global event after the London Family Planning Summit in 2012, where she came up with a new idea of a global initiative of what a family planning program should be.

It was good to know that access to contraceptives was once again high on the world'€™s list of priorities.

'€œBut it is more than that. It is not that we just gave the old family planning agenda a new coat of paint. We were not interested in continuing to do was done before.'€

For her, family planning needs to focus on women'€™s needs rather than on demographics. '€œIf the demographic condition of one country changes because of women'€™s choices, these may be the outcomes that everybody was hoping to get worldwide.'€

Family planning must be a link on a chain of good health for women and children.

Thirteen years since the establishment of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world'€™s largest philanthropic foundation with assets of around US$41 billion, Melinda has done a lot of traveling.

The once reserved woman comes alive whenever she visits the foundation'€™s projects in faraway places around the world.

'€œI am inspired by women I meet everywhere I go. They have to work hard just to make sure their families survive. Despite hardship, they stay optimistic and do everything in their power to create better futures for their families and children,'€ she said.

She believes that by focusing on the lives of women and children and by making it clear that the new agenda is neither about coercive population control nor abortion, the controversy over international family planning programs can be defused.

'€œWhen I travel to countries, I meet with church leaders, imams and community leaders to seek shared values rather than differences,'€ she went on.

In 2012, the Gates Foundation pledged $560 million in grants to improving access to contraception for women in developing countries, including in Indonesia.

When asked about her priority in Indonesia, Gates said all supported programs were being carried out under the broader umbrella of improving the lives of mothers and children.

She said when the Gates Foundation supported any program such as family planning, it was not a separate program but was integrated with the betterment of mothers and children.

'€œIf we do sanitation projects, it will benefit children and mothers as they can get access to clean water and good sanitation to prevent babies from having diarrhea, one of the deadly tropical diseases that kills many young children [in Indonesia].'€

In Indonesia, the Foundation has granted multimillion dollar grants to fund programs in the areas of family planning, vaccinations and health prevention, education, sanitation, microfinance, agriculture, scientific research and poverty-alleviation.

Collaborating with the Indonesia-based Tahir Foundation, the Gates launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, comprising polio eradication and an endgame strategic plan (2013-2018). The comprehensive plan is projected to cost $5.5 billion over six years in an effort to make the world polio-free by 2018.

Gates also stressed the family planning program in Indonesia, which she said was now being revitalized after international funding became available.

'€œI see new commitments from all parties '€” the Health Ministry, the National Planning Coordinating Board [BKKBN] and more importantly from an already strong civil society and NGOs, which have filled the gaps in providing family planning services during the country'€™s stagnant period in the last ten years,'€ she said.  

She also understands the challenges faced by Indonesians.

'€œIndonesia is such a huge country with 17,000 islands where health access is unreachable for many people in remote places, but even women in Jakarta find it hard to get the services,'€ she went on.

Decentralization is another hurdle. The Indonesian government must convince local leaders of the importance of the program for the people, she said, as well as reaching out to young people and training midwives and health providers.

Globally, a lack of political will, funding and commitment have hampered the program.

'€œEven the donor community has to strengthen commitment. Not every donor has made a pledge, not every country has made a commitment and a plan,'€ said Gates.

In times when economic austerity is everywhere, commitments from donor countries and organizations to funding programs is at stake, and Gates added that her and her husband kept on calling the leaders of governments, donor countries and agencies for pledges and commitments.

Amid her busy schedule, Melinda still finds time for her family.

'€œWe definitely have time for enjoying life. Bill and I and the children just watch movies together. We talk a lot about our work in the foundation, which is a deep joy for us,'€ she said.

Many other times, the couple have a glass of wine, go on vacation and do not talk about the foundation at all. Gates said she liked reading fiction and listening to Willie Nelson and U2.

All in all, Gates said she was just a mother of three children who had the resources to help other mothers. She felt she had a role to play in giving a voice to the voiceless.

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