Statement by Bill and Melinda Gates About Being Named Persons of the Year

We’re honored to have been named, together with our friend Bono, as Time Magazine’s Persons of the Year.

We’re grateful that Time recognizes the importance of the world's inequities, whether they are in the United States or thousands of miles away. We are also pleased by Time's recognition that we can solve these problems and that many people must play a part in doing so.

In recent years, our foundation has worked with organizations, governments, grantees, and committed individuals in the United States and around the world. We have great admiration for the determined and often anonymous people who work every day to make the world a better place, whether they are principals improving inner city schools in New York or scientists testing potential life-saving vaccines in Mozambique. The people we’ve met have inspired us and refueled our optimism many times over.

We realize that we’ve been extremely fortunate in business, and we want to give back in ways that can do the most good for the most people. But we also believe that everyone has something to offer—time, money, or energy—that can help others.

Together we’ve all made important progress, but there’s still a lot of work to do. Too many children in the developing world face lives without health, hope, or opportunity. Too many children in the United States are not getting an education that prepares them for success in life. Working together, we can solve these problems. These children are our children, and their futures depend on all of us.