Don't Look Away
Reader's Digest US|June 2017

Melinda Gates explains why she has taken up an especially difficult cause in India, and why hope is her most potent weapon.

Melinda Gates
Don't Look Away

TEN YEARS AGO, I traveled to India with friends. On the last day there, I spent some time meeting with prostitutes. I expected to talk to them about the risk of AIDS, but they wanted to talk about stigma. Most of these women had been abandoned by their husbands, and that’s why they’d gone into prostitution. They were trying to make enough money to feed their kids. They were so low in the eyes of society that they could be raped and robbed and beaten by anybody—even by police—and nobody cared.

Talking to them about their lives was so moving to me. But what I remember most is how much they wanted to touch me and be touched. It was as if physical contact somehow proved their worth. As I was leaving, we took a photo of all of us with our arms linked together.

この記事は Reader's Digest US の June 2017 版に掲載されています。

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この記事は Reader's Digest US の June 2017 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、8,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

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