Last year, Bill Gates sat down with a group of teenage boys in Chicago and learned a little about processing anger.
He was at Al Raby High School in the East Garfield Park neighborhood, where he participated in a session in the Becoming a Man program. Launched in Chicago in 2001, the program helps young men explore their emotions and work on their decision-making skills. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has worked on teacher training and improving curriculum, but that kind of work the kind that helps kids with their self-image and how to handle their stresses is new to the foundation.
Bill and Melinda Gates released their annual newsletter Tuesday, discussing discoveries that have surprised them. Whether its understanding the power of DNA testing kits, the sexist nature of data, or how much young men can teach a billionaire about his feelings, surprises have the ability to spur action, Melinda Gates told the Tribune.
The world is getting better, she said. Innovations are changing the world and can continue to change the world if deployed properly and with good input from local communities.
The couple discussed the annual letter (www.gatesnotes.com/2019-Annual-Letter) in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. Here are a few questions posed by the Chicago Tribune.
Question: Bill, what were you expecting when you walked into that Becoming a Man meeting?
Bill: I was there and wasnt sure what to expect and it kind of blew me away. It just happened everybody in the group was a black male who came from a single-parent household, and the counselor had that same background and was really amazing. Its an intense thing, to build up the idea of Do these kids see themselves as doing well in school? What narrative do they run into?
Question: What impact did you notice?
Bill: For a lot of these kids, the chance theyll end up in jail is higher than the chance theyll end up graduating from college. So starting in about eighth or ninth grade, to get them to think about themselves and think of the benefits of the positive path, any intervention that can do that is pretty important not only for them but for society.
Melinda: When Bill came home and described this program to me, his voice was cracking up. He saw the difference it made in these kids lives.
Question: You talk in your letter about how mobile phones can be the most powerful in the hands of the worlds poorest women. Do they hold that kind of power with women in U.S. cities, too?
Melinda: We look at that issue much more across the developing world. Globally, 40 percent of women dont even reach the internet, and we know the difference internet makes in all of our lives just in terms of information. The piece the foundation really focuses on is the digital bank account.
Basically, she doesnt have the means to get up and go to a bank. And even if she does, somebody will steal her money along the way and shes not welcomed when she gets there. When she has her own phone and she has a digital bank account, and she can save a dollar a day, two dollars a day, it changes everything.
