Gates Sr. on polio

 

 

William Gates Sr., cochair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

William Gates Sr., cochair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, talks with The Rotarian’s managing editor, Marla Donato, about his foundation’s commitment to polio eradication

Calling it a “mind-boggling” effort that has dramatically changed millions of lives, William Gates Sr. commended Rotarians at the June RI Convention in  Salt Lake City for their work in eradicating polio. Here are excerpts from his convention speech and subsequent interview.

On choosing to support The Rotary Foundation’s efforts to eradicate polio:

We chose Rotary because we have absolute confidence that Rotary can do it. … We cannot forget: Polio still destroys families in India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. When you wipe it out there, then it will really be time to celebrate.

On individual Rotarians making a big difference:

The [approximately] $650 million that you’ve raised for the polio effort is a gigantic contribution. And we’re talking about somebody in Boise, Idaho, who wrote a $200 check. You add it all up, and you got to $650 million. That is awesome.

On his own commitment to polio eradication:

When I found out that my wife was pregnant with our first child, I was overjoyed, but I was also afraid. The horrible epidemic of 1952 was fresh in my mind. I was terrified that my baby girl would sneak a dip in a swimming pool or take a drink from a water fountain. I had nightmarish visions of my daughter hooked up to an iron lung. It’s almost impossible to fully appreciate how successful Rotary has been in fighting that disease. It boggles the mind to try to make sense of how dramatically you’ve changed millions and millions of lives.

On Rotary’s power in numbers:

You have three things to offer: your wallets, your legs, and your lungs. The money is essential. Fighting poverty and disease is an exceedingly difficult undertaking, and it isn’t cheap. But all the money in the world doesn’t matter if it isn’t spent the right way. That’s where your legs come in. Rotary has more than 1.2 million volunteers, and it can send them where they’re needed most. You have your lungs, and they are powerful. Any group with thousands of clubs spread throughout the world has a voice that travels far. When Rotary started talking about polio, people listened.

On the importance of local values:

Who am I? Just a guy from the little town of Bremerton, Wash. I’m the grown-up version of a kid who learned about right and wrong from my parents, my basketball coach, and my next-door neighbor, a small businessman who led the Boy Scout troop. I’m proud of the little ways I’ve been able to take my small-town upbringing and apply it to some of the most vexing challenges in the world. And that’s exactly why I think Rotary is one of the finest organizations on the planet. You are a massive collection of energetic volunteers steeped in local values, an army of activists who place Service Above Self.

On Rotary’s global perspective:

Your clubs are the civic lifeblood of big cities and small towns all over the world, yet together you have turned your combined attention to a new locale: the global neighborhood. You are all a testament to the idea that the world should be as big in our minds as it is on a map. … Do you understand that Rotary can be to boys and girls in poor countries what my coach back in Bremerton was to me 70 years ago? OK, I know what you’re saying: Isn’t that pretty pie in the sky? Isn’t Burundi still far away from Bremerton? And how can I be as important as Bill Gates’ basketball coach to a child I don’t even know? Well, I think I have a convincing answer to the charge of naive optimism. In a word, it’s polio.

On the shared ideals of Rotary and the Gates Foundation:

Part of what we [at the Gates Foundation] get up in the morning to do is to persuade people to [address] the things we see to be egregious disparities – health in the world at large, education in this country. [Rotarians] are the beacons of a simple truth: that the key ingredient to making a peaceful world is the understanding that all people, no matter where they live, are equally precious. That is the principle behind all the work that the Gates Foundation does.

On people caring – and taking action:

A lot of people say the biggest problem in today’s world is complacency; people just don’t care enough, they argue. I disagree. It’s not that people don’t care. … Who among us doesn’t find it revolting that people are still dying in Afghanistan from polio? But our revulsion, no matter how deep, isn’t enough. We need a way to act on it. And that is what Rotary provides.

On his long history with Rotary:

I had the privilege of being a student member of the … Rotary club at the University of Washington in Seattle in the late ’40s, and it was the beginning of a love affair with Rotary, because it was always trying to figure out what it might do to make [the world] a better place to live. It was very inspiring. I [became an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Seattle] a couple of years ago.

On his own club’s commitment to polio eradication:

Every year, a few dozen members of my local Seattle club [travel to] Ethiopia, where they walk door to door administering the polio vaccine. When they come home, I’m always struck by how they describe their experiences. Without exception, they say that Ethiopia changed their lives more than they changed the lives of the Ethiopian families they met. That is one of the precious benefits of Rotary’s Service Above Self mantra. If you really believe it, if you practice it, you quickly find that service and self become quite indistinguishable. In fact, service gives deeper meaning to self.

On Rotarians as concerned global citizens:

You are parents, basketball coaches, and next-door neighbors. You are leaders. You are good people who feel a responsibility to serve. … You understand that in our century, you are called to serve new neighbors. Your neighbors are people in poor countries that once seemed far away, people who once seemed so different from us. But like us, they have mothers who love them, children who need them, and friends who cherish them. And, as Rotarians, you know that we simply ought to help them.