Priorities

Redeeming A Vow To 120 Million Women And Girls

Redeeming A Vow To 120 Million Women And Girls

by Shubhangi Jena July 18 2017, 6:28 pm Estimated Reading Time: 2 mins, 42 secs

Raising a family is a balancing act. Last week, the world celebrated “World Population Day” by not rejoicing the spur of populous sperms scrawling to the brim of oversaturation but by silently pledging to curb this menace. The cure to thisplague is by bringing it to a screeching halt and rightly so by the adoption of contraceptives.

A silent promoter who however didn’t gatecrash into the headlines for her benevolent act is Melinda Gates. The power couples that Bill and Melinda Gates are, they have always been revered for their philanthropic activities and this time Melinda Gates shares about her contribution and promises fulfilled.

Back when, Bill and Melinda Gates had founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, they made a silent vow- to enable 120 million more women and girls to use modern contraceptives by 2020 with the goal of achieving universal access to contraceptives for everyone, everywhere. This year Ms.Gates headed back to U.K. to celebrate this important milestone and brace for the challenges ahead. In the year 2012, world leaders had stepped forward and concurred on making ‘family planning’ a priority.

Through Medium,  Melinda Gates shares how she was apprehensive about talking to the rural habitants regarding contraceptives. She says, “I’ve used contraceptives for most of my life, but like a lot of people, I thought of family planning as a personal issue — not a global one. I couldn’t imagine speaking about it publicly.” However with the launch of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,reaching out to people became easier than thought. She further adds, “Everywhere I went, the conversation turned to contraceptives.(…)  In India, I asked a group of women if anyone had lost a child, and every single woman raised her hand.”

With an unfaltering resolute to resolve this issue, she herself started conducting an intensive study of all the data at hand. The conclusion and the solution, she says are contraceptives. Scores of families have no access to basic amenities and thus are victimized by poverty. “Multiply that by millions of families, and it becomes clear why contraceptives are one of the greatest antipoverty innovations the world has ever known — and one of the smartest investments countries can make,” states Melinda Gates.

Further, she also points out how we can empower the 1.2 billion adolescents by giving them the ‘right tools’ and thus enabling an unprecedented growth of affluence  in the poorer parts of the world. She also voices her apprehension regarding the edgy political climate since the White House has proposed a diminution in the global family planning funds.However she sends a strong message through her incisive words. “If empowering women is just more than rhetoric for the President, he will prove it by protecting the funding.”

On the last note, Melinda humbly credits all the women out there who are bringing about and are a part of this change. “They’re inspiring all of us with countless acts of courage and hope.Now, we must match their determination with our own, until every woman, everywhere has the chance to live the life she deserves.”

 




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