The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World

Chapter 2 describes the early health initiatives of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It begins with a discussion of Dr. Hans Rosling (d. 2017), one of Melinda Gates’s mentors. Dr. Rosling’s emphasis on seeing life through the eyes of those he wanted to serve resonated with Gates. Helping people demands understanding their needs, desires, and beliefs. This kind of understanding can only come from direct interaction. Gates traveled extensively and spoke to women in different countries; through these conversations, she came to realize that she could attack poverty and empower women by helping mothers protect their children. The foundation’s first global initiative aimed to save children under the age of five by expanding vaccine distribution and supporting programs that improved maternal and newborn heath. Gates then traveled to Shivgarh in Uttar Pradesh, a state in northern India known as the epicenter of maternal and newborn deaths, to discuss newborn care with a group of villagers. She met the family of a young boy who nearly died of hypothermia shortly after his birth. Only the quick actions of a healthcare worker trained and deployed using funds from the foundation saved the infant’s life.