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‘Keep speaking out. Democracy isnot a spectator sport.’—
M
adeleine Albrighti was thinking about you today,
Lucy, and wondering how you
were doing. You still don’t have
a contract or earn the minimum
wage, even though a landmark
2012 ruling granted Kenyan
domestic workers the same basic
labor rights as other workers. You
must continue to fight. You can’t
afford not to. Use that fire I saw in
you when you fought for access to
HIV medicines—because it works!
Treatment coverage in Kenya has
risen from 29% in 2010 to 68% in 2018, thanks in large part
to collective demands for access. So call on the network of
people living with HIV to stand up for change. I’m so glad
you’ve now joined the workers’ movement too, and by uniting
we can be stronger together. You can be the glue that binds
these groups to demand change. You are strong, you are
respected, you are powerful, and working together you can
make a real difference.
Young women like you in Kenya and across Africa
shouldn’t have to work for
a pittance. You shouldn’t
have to worry about
having no food on the
table because you have
to buy medicines for your
children. You shouldn’t
have to fear genderbased
violence. No, Lucy, no
one should be submitted
to this. So continue to
fight with me, and to fight
for your rights.
Byanyima is executive
director of UNAIDS
WINNIE
BYANYIMA
A letter
to
LucyOne of my favorite quotations these days
is from Robert Frost: “Now that I am old,
my teachers are the young.” Although
there is not a lot to relish about aging, I am
grateful it has given me the opportunity
to learn from you. I have been inspired by
how your generation has already spoken
out forcefully on the environment; racial
justice; and the rights and dignity of
women, immigrants and refugees.
But your voices will need to grow even
louder in the future. The lessons my
generation learned during World War II
and the Cold War about the benefits of
multilateral cooperation and the dangers
of unbridled jingoism and dangerous
ideologies are no longer top of mind. I have
no nostalgia for the past, but it carries
lessons we should heed: aggressors must
be resisted; the truth must be defended;
and intolerance cannot be allowed to hide
behind the mask of national pride.
Freedom’s saga has just begun, and I
put my faith in you to write the next chapter
of that story. Keep speaking out, keep
marching, keep participating. Democracy
is not a spectator sport.Albright was the U.S. Secretary of State
from 1997 to 2001 and teaches at
Georgetown University in WashingtonVOICES
Hindsight, as the saying goes, is 20/20. So, as well as soliciting
letters from young people to their elders, TIME asked six global
leaders to write to a young person or people of their own choosing.
The authors have decades of experience in the fields of statecraft,
human-rights work and innovation—and together their open
letters reflect a feeling of hope that despite the challenges young
people face, they also hold the power to improve the planet.MADELEINE ALBRIGHT
A letter to my studentsLucy is a young
HIV-positive
domestic worker in
Kenya