The English Essay

Article – Making a difference: Someone that has made a positive contribution to society.

 Melinda Gates: Much more than Bill Gates’ wife

Melinda Ann French was born on August 15, 1964 in Dallas, Texas, United States. She is an American philanthropist and former general manager of Microsoft. In the 2000s, she co-founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with her husband Bill Gates, being recognized as the largest private charitable organization in the world. She fights for equality and female empowerment, and politically it is common to hear her criticize Donald Trump's decisions.

She is the daughter of an engineer and a housewife and since she was little, she received Catholic training at a college of nuns. At Duke University in North Carolina, he earned a bachelor's and specialization in just five years. She stood out as the best student in the class and that condition was not unrelated to the fact that she was able to Microsoft in Seattle. Melinda married Bill Gates in January 1994 - they had met for seven years at a Microsoft ceremony. Since then, they have built a life of common goals and had three children.

In this relationship, which deals with a fortune of 86.200 million euros and has put them for 12 years on the top of the richest on the planet. Melinda is not in the shadow: she is a powerful woman committed to solving some problems in the world and for that the foundation that the couple has created has donated over 36 million dollars. Forbes has already placed her several times in the ranking of the most powerful women in the world and, in 2005, placed her in third place.

Her philanthropy work started after she had a breakthrough moment when she traveled with Bill to Africa, before they were even married. There they had contact with extreme poverty and observed how merciless some diseases eradicated a long ago in the United States were killing children among the African continent. Then in 2000, the couple created the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which they saved the lives of more than five million children according to Science Progress.  

She is a woman who bets on the formation of work and support groups, as well as government partnerships. As a Catholic, Melinda has done everything for the Church to change the teachings on the use of contraceptives, but has failed to achieve her goals. She believes that to take people out of poverty, the right thing is to help the women first. The foundation sponsored an international conference about the access to contraception the developing countries

Melinda's speech has been instrumental in convincing other millionaires to help the poorest - Warren Buffetr became one of the big supporters of the Gates foundation and he was also joined by Mark Zuckerberg. She says that "Money only has value if, in some way, it can help someone to have dignity and a better life", "We all, with or without money, have the ability to improve someone's life."

She also decided that part of her fortune will be given to her foundation and other Ngo’s. She is a great example of someone that helped and it’s helping to change the world with her work and privileges.