Melinda Gates and Mother Teresa have more in common than not

One of my readings during the lockdown has been Melinda Gates' book “The Moment of Lift – How empowering Women Changes the World”. My interest was triggered after watching the documentary “Inside Bill′s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates” in Netflix. Both Bill and Melinda have been and still are very prominent voices in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic and some people even see conspiracy theories connected to the Gates, which are totally unfounded.

Melinda does not hide at all her catholic upbringing. She comments that “my mom has done more than anyone else in forming and inspiring my spiritual life over many years. She goes to Mass five times a week. She reads, she goes to silent retreats, and she explains spiritual ideas with passion and openness and curiosity and has encouraged me to do the same”. About her father she writes: “A man can call another man and share advice about how to improve their marriages – that men can play a role as guardians and supporters of the union”. Catholic nuns at her school where very much in favour of making the young girls familiar with computers, which was quite unusual at the time. Melinda even writes what Christ means for her: “The high priests wanted to break him. And they failed. His ability to absorb pain was beyond their ability to inflict it, so he could answer their hatred with love”. Yes, you won′t believe it, but Melinda′s book at the end is about the essence of love: "The goal is for everyone to belong. The goal is for everyone to be loved. Love is what lifts us up. When we come together, we rise. And in the world we're building together, everyone rises. No one is exploited because they're poor or excluded they're weal. There is no stigma and no shame and no mark for inferiority because you are sick, or because you're old, or because you're not the "right" race, or because you're the "wrong" religion, or because you're a girl or a woman. There is no wrong race or religion or gender. We have shed our false boundaries. We can love without limits. We see ourselves in others. We see ourselves as others. That is the moment of lift."

Reading this book is really touching. She quotes what she heard from Hans Rosling, the author of the best seller book “Factfulness”,  when she visited him in Sweden: “Melinda, if you remember only one thing I′ve told you, remember that you have to go to the people on the margins”. This is exactly what Melinda has been doing since she started to the work for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She has been visiting the poorest of the poor travelling to the end for the world. She tells numerous of touching stories related to maternal and new-born health, to family planning, to girls in schools, to unpaid work, to child marriage, to women in agriculture, to women in the workplace and to women in sex "work". All of them are very relevant chapters related to how empowerment of women changes the world.

Somehow, Melinda reminds me of mother Teresa. Some will totally disagree with this comparison and may be even shocked. Melinda and Mother Teresa are both catholic women interested in the empowerment of women, with a high sense for dignity and equality. Both stress the need of education to change society and both believe in the powerful role women can and will play if they are allowed by men to do so. Just in the subject of natural family planning versus contraceptives there is a big disagreement between both of them. The risk of the massive use of contraceptives is counting on pills (and by this shortcutting education) to quickly solve a problem, as Mother Teresa stated in her speech at the National Prayer Breakfast sponsored by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on 3rd of February 1994.

Pretty remarkable is also what Melinda writes about her and her husband′s foundation: “We’re a learning foundation. If we see an opportunity in an area that′s new to us, we start by making small grants. We watch what happens; we try to figure things out. We look for points of leverage. Then we see if a larger investment makes sense”. 

This is a good rule for any philanthropist engaged in changing the world.