More Time. More Energy.
When you think of superpowers, you think of Superman flying, Thor’s hammer or Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth.
Not so with business magnates and philanthropists, Bill and Melinda Gates.
When considering what superpowers they desire in their 2016 Annual Letter, they say, “More time, more energy.”
And further to this, “If the world can put more of both into the hands of the poorest, we believe it will allow millions of dreams to take flight.”
MORE TIME
Women and girls living in poverty are disproportionately burdened with hours of unpaid work every day. Unless things change, girls today will spend hundreds of thousands more hours than boys doing unpaid work “simply because society assumes it’s their responsibility.”
Often we take for granted the appliances that make our daily lives simpler and easier, such as the dishwasher, the stove, the water tap and the washing machine. Enter into an impoverished community like we have in Varanasi, India, and you will seldom find any of these appliances.
The time it takes women and girls in poverty to walk and find clean drinking water, wash clothes and cook food for their families impedes on their ability to earn a wage, go to school and seek adequate healthcare from doctors. And women who don’t have enough time can’t invest in their futures.
Melinda believes the key to having more time for the world’s women is to recognise, reduce and redistribute the existing work necessary for society to function. And it’s not just an issue in developing countries. No country has achieved the perfect balance yet, with women globally spending an average of 4.5 hours a day on unpaid work, over 50 per cent more than men.
We must “recognise that unpaid work is still work. Reduce the amount of time and energy it takes. And redistribute it more evenly between women and men.”
Women are aching for opportunities to receive a hand up – it’s why we see 94% of Opportunity loans going to women. By empowering entrepreneurial women in poverty with small loans to start businesses and earn incomes, they can finally gain financial independence and afford to provide themselves and their families with basic needs such as nutritious food, clean drinking water, a flushing toilet and electricity for their homes.
MORE ENERGY
Reducing the amount of time and energy it takes to complete the majority of unpaid work is an essential component of Melinda’s strategy. But there’s another type of energy Bill Gates believes in:
“A cheap, clean source of energy would change everything.”
Bill says that, “More than one billion people today live without access to energy. No electricity to light and heat their homes, power hospitals and factories, and improve their lives in thousands of ways. Likewise a lack of time creates obstacles too.”
The crippling effect of having to perform hours of backbreaking unpaid work without electricity is a burden carried by so many families living in poverty. “Without access to energy, the poor are stuck in the dark, denied all the benefits and opportunities that come with power.”
Some of Opportunity’s program partners have recognised the need to provide sources of renewable energy to further help loan recipients break the poverty cycle.
In India, some partners offer renewable energy specific loans so people can afford good quality solar products with after-sales support. The likes of solar lamps, solar home systems and multi-commodity solar tunnel dryers are made available to more than 700,000 people like Pushkala. Before having access to solar energy, Pushkala often had to rely on harmful kerosene lamps during power cuts when it rained.
Regardless of the environmental benefits of solar products, there are also countless social benefits, such as a reduction in harmful chemicals emitted by kerosene lamps and the ability for children to safely study and complete homework at night.
More time, more energy. These are the things we complain about not having enough of. But compared to the challenges people living in poverty face, they are an underestimated superpower we have and can share with the rest of the world.