5 Things That Surprised Bill and Melinda Gates Last Year

Every year since 2009, Bill and Melinda Gates have written a letter about the issues and innovations most striking to them. The goal is to bring important global issues to people’s attention so that more minds can work to create solutions and improve life for everyone on the planet. Their newly released 2019 letter, which is themed “We Didn’t See This Coming,” includes examples of cutting-edge technology — like self-contained toilets that don’t require connection to a sewage system — as well as efforts to address social challenges like domestic violence. “Bill and I travel a lot locally and globally, together and often separately,” Melinda Gates tells TIME. “What we wrote in this year’s letter are things that when we come [together] after traveling separately, we describe to one another.” Here are five of the nine innovations and issues highlighted in this year’s letter from Bill and Melinda Gates. Low-tech violence prevention One initiative that caught the Gateses’ attention this year is a school- and neighborhood-based behavior program called Becoming a Man, which helps young men in high-crime areas learn skills for avoiding violence and controlling potentially dangerous impulses. Programs like this, says Bill — who participated in one in Chicago — show the power of even low-tech solutions like teaching basic coping skills in changing people’s lives. Studies of the program...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized public health Source Type: news