【正文】 tinent are dying every year from we39。re sure as hell going to bring you puters.” Before I went to Soweto, I thought I understood the world39。s problems, but I was blind to the most important was so taken aback by what I saw that I had to ask myself, “Do I still believe that innovation can solve the world39。s toughest problems?” I promised myself that before I came back to Africa, I would find out more about what keeps people the years, Melinda and I did learn more about the most pressing needs of the a later trip to South Africa, I paid a visit to a hospital for patients with MDRTB, or multidrugresistant tuberculosis, a disease with a cure rate of under 50 remember that hospital as a place of was a giant open ward with a sea of patients shuffling around in pajamas, wearing was one floor just for children, including some babies lying in had a little school for the kids who were well enough to learn, but many of the children couldn39。t make it, and the hospital didn39。t seem to know whether it was worth it to keep the school talked to a patient there in her early had been a worker at a TB hospital when she came down with a went to a doctor, and he told her she had drugresistant was later diagnosed with wasn39。t going to live much longer, but there were plenty of MDR patients waiting to take her bed when she vacated was hell with a waiting seeing hell didn39。t reduce my optimism。it channelled got in the car and told the doctor who was working with us: “Yeah, I is hard to we should be able to do something for these people.” This year, we39。re entering phase three with a new TB drug patients who respond, instead of a 50 percent cure rate after 18 months for $2,000, we could get an 8090 percent cure rate after six months for under $39。s better by a factor of a is often dismissed as false there is also false 39。s the attitude that says we can39。t defeat poverty and absolutely : Bill called me after he visited the TB , if we39。re calling from a trip, we just go through the agenda of the day: “Here39。s what I did。here39。s where I went。here39。s who I met.” But this call was said: “Melinda, I39。ve gone somewhere I39。ve never been before” and then he choked up and couldn39。t he just said: “I39。ll tell you when I get home.” I knew what he was going you see people with so little hope, it breaks your if you want to do the most, you have to see the 39。s what Bill was doing that 39。ve had days like that, years ago, I travelled to India with the last day there, I spent some time meeting with expected to talk to them about the risk of AIDS, but they wanted to talk about of these women had been abandoned by their husbands, and that39。s why they39。d gone into were trying to make enough money to feed their were so low in the eyes of society that they could be raped and robbed and beaten by anybody – even by police – and nobody to them about their lives was so moving to what I remember most is how much they wanted to touch me and be was as if physical contact somehow proved their I was leaving, we took a photo of all of us with our arms linked that day, I spent some time in a home for the walked into a large hall and saw rows and rows of cot was attended except for one far off in the corner that no one was going near, so I walked over patient was a woman who seemed to be in her remember her had these huge, brown, sorrowful was emaciated, on the verge of intestines weren39。t holding anything – so they had put her on a cot with a hole cut out in the bottom, and everything just poured through into a pan could tell she had AIDS, both from the way she looked, and the fact that she was off in the corner stigma of AIDS is vicious – especially for women – and the punishment is I arrived at her cot, I suddenly felt totally had absolutely nothing I could offer knew I couldn39。t save her, but I didn39。t want her to be I knelt down next to her and reached out to touch her – and as soon as she felt my hand, she grabbed it and wouldn39。t let sat there holding hands, and even though I knew she couldn39。t understand me, I just started saying: “It39。s 39。s 39。s not your 39。s not your fault.” We had been there together for a while when she pointed upward with her took me some time to figure out that she wanted to go up to the roof and sit outside while it was still light asked one of the workers if that would be okay, but she was overwhelmed by all the patients she had to care said: “She39。s in the last stages of dying, and I have to pass out medicine.” Then I asked another, and got the same was getting late and the sun was going down, and I had to leave, and no one seemed willing to take her finally I just scooped her up – she was just skin over a skeleton, just a sack of bones – and I carried her up the the roof, there were a few of those plastic chairs that will blow over in a strong breeze, and I set her down on one of those, and I helped prop her feet up on another, and I placed a blanket over her she sat there with her face to the west, watching the made sure the workers knew that she was up there so they would e get her after the sun went I had to leave she never left felt pletely and totally inadequate in the face of this woman39。s sometimes it39。s the people you can39。t help who inspire you the knew that the sex workers I linked arms with in the morning could bee the woman I carried upstairs in the evening – unless they found a way to defy the stigma that hung over their the past 10 years, our foundation has helped sex workers build support groups so they could empower each other to speak out for safe sex and demand that their clients use brave efforts helped keep HIV prevalence low among sex workers, and a lot of studies show that is a big reason why the AIDS epidemic in India hasn39。t these sex workers gathered together to help stop AIDS transmission, something unexpected and wonderful munity they formed became a platform for were able to set up speeddial networks