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Our foundation began working in India a decade ago, at a time when many feared that the country would become a flashpoint for HIV/AIDS. Since then, we have expanded into other areas, including vaccines, family planning and agricultural development. In all of this work, Melinda and I have seen many examples of India's poor making dramatic contributions. But nowhere has this power been demonstrated more clearly than in the fight to end polio. Indeed, India's accomplishment in eradicating polio is the most impressive global health success I've ever seen.
我们的基金会10年前开始在印度开展工作，当时许多人担心印度会成为艾滋病的导火索。从那时起，我们的工作扩展到其他领域，包括疫苗接种、计划生育和农业发展。在所有这些工作中，梅琳达(Melinda)和我看到了许多印度穷人做出巨大贡献的例子。但没有什么能比消灭小儿麻痹症之战更清楚地证明了这种力量。实际上，印度根除小儿麻痹症的成就是我所见过的令人印象最深刻的全球卫生事业的胜利。
I first began traveling to India in the 1980s, drawn by a fascination with this ancient country that cherishes its history and harbors great ambitions for the future. My interest was professional as well as personal. Microsoft was expanding, our need for talent was growing, and I was attracted to the vitality and ingenuity of the Indian people.
20世纪80年代，怀着对这个历史悠久、胸怀未来的古老国家的好奇，我第一次前往印度。我对印度的兴趣既有职业原因，也有个人原因。微软(Microsoft)当时正在扩张，我们对人才的需求不断增长，印度人民的活力和创造力吸引了我。
A few years later, several colleagues and I were flying into Bangalore. As we made our final approach, I looked out the window and saw an area of densely packed, tiny, dilapidated homes stretching out for miles. At that moment, one of my Indian companions declared proudly, 'We have no slums in Bangalore.' Whether out of denial or innocence, my colleague didn't see the 'other' India. I don't mean to single him out. It can be easy to turn our eyes away from the poor. But if we do, we miss seeing a society's full potential.
几年后，我和几位同事飞往班加罗尔(Bangalore)。当我们最终到达时，我看向窗外，只见一片密密麻麻、狭小破旧的房屋绵延数英里之远。那一刻，我的一位印度同事自豪地宣称：“班加罗尔没有贫民窟。”不管是出于开脱还是无知，我的同事没有看到“另一个”印度。我无意指出他是谁。对穷人视而不见很容易。但如果我们这样做，就不会发觉一个社会的全部潜力。
When Melinda and I started our foundation's work in India, we began to meet people from the areas we'd been flying over. They had little education and poor health, and lived in slums or poor rural areas -- the kind of people many experts had told us were holding India back. But our experience suggests the opposite: What some call a weakness can be a source of great strength.
当梅琳达和我开始基金会在印度的工作时，我们见到了飞机曾途经地区的人们。他们几乎没有接受过教育，健康状况糟糕，住在贫民窟或贫困的农村地区──许多专家告诉我们，是这种人拖了印度的后腿。但我们的经验表明，事实相反：一些人所谓的麻烦正可能是强大力量的来源。
In 1988, when there were approximately 350,000 new polio cases a year and the disease was crippling children in 125 countries, the World Health Assembly set the goal of eliminating polio world-wide. Progress came quickly. By 1994, the Americas were polio-free. Soon we saw the last case in China, the last case in the Pacific, the last case in Europe. By the year 2000, the number of polio cases had dropped by 99%. But the task of ending polio was not 99% done.
1988年，世界卫生大会制订了在全球消灭小儿麻痹症的目标，当时每年约有350,000个新增小儿麻痹症病例，这种疾病仍在125个国家中使儿童致残。这项工作进展迅速。1994年，美洲消灭了小儿麻痹症。很快，我们看到了中国的最后一个病例、太平洋地区的最后一个病例、欧洲的最后一个病例。截至2000年，小儿麻痹症病例数已下降了99%。但这并不等于消灭小儿麻痹症的任务完成了99%。
The remaining cases were concentrated in fewer countries, and India was one of the last nations left. This was no surprise. India's urban centers are among the world's most densely populated. Its rural communities are dispersed across a vast and often inaccessible terrain. The country suffers from poor sanitation. Its 1.2 billion citizens are highly mobile and give birth to 27 million new Indians every year. Experts predicted that polio would be eliminated in every other country before it was eliminated in India.
剩下的病例集中在少数国家，印度是最后一个。这并不令人意外。印度的市中心是世界上人口最密集的市中心之一。印度的农村社区分散在广阔且通常难以到达的地区。印度的卫生条件恶劣。它的12亿人口高度流动，每年有2,700万名印度新生儿诞生。专家预测，其它各国都将在印度之前消灭小儿麻痹症。
But India surprised them all: The country has now been polio-free for more than two years. India's success offers a script for winning some of the world's most difficult battles in every area of human welfare. The key has been the participation of the humblest, most vulnerable members of the Indian population.
但印度让他们所有人惊讶：印度已经两年多未发现小儿麻痹症病例。印度的成功说明我们可以在每个人类福利领域打赢一些世界上最困难的战役。关键在于印度最底层的弱势群体的参与。
To be successful, any campaign this big has to include a clear goal, a comprehensive plan and precise measurements of progress. But the antipolio campaign in India took a crucial extra step: It enlisted the support of the full sweep of Indian society, including health workers, ordinary citizens and some of the poorest people in the most impoverished regions of the country.
任何这种大型运动都必须有明确的目标、周全的计划和精确衡量的进度才能成功。而印度的抗击小儿麻痹症运动还迈出了至关重要的一步：它获得了印度全社会的支持，包括卫生工作者、普通公民和印度最贫困地区的部分最贫困的人。
The heart of the plan was a simple and inspiring mission: to find the children. To defeat polio, it is essential to achieve up to 95% vaccination coverage in afflicted areas. There is no way to measure whether you're meeting that mark unless you know how many children there are, where they are and whether they've been vaccinated.
这项计划的核心是一个简单而鼓舞人心的任务：找到孩子们。为了抗击小儿麻痹症，受感染地区的疫苗接种率必须达到95%。没有方法来衡量是否达到这一标准，除非你知道那里有多少孩子，他们在哪里，他们是否已经接种。
India responded to this challenge with an army of more than 2 million vaccinators, who canvassed every village, hamlet and slum. Vaccinators took the best maps they had and made them better. They walked miles every day and worked late into the night. They found children in the poorest areas of Uttar Pradesh and in the remote Kosi River area of Bihar -- an area with no electricity that is often flooded and unreachable by roads. They found the sons and daughters of migrant workers in bus stations and train stations, accompanying their families on their way to find work.
印度配备了200多万人的接种员队伍以应对这一挑战，他们走遍了每个村庄、聚落和贫民窟。疫苗接种员带上了他们最好的地图并让它更加完善。他们每天步行很远，工作直到深夜。他们找到了最贫困的北方邦(Uttar Pradesh)地区和比哈尔邦(Bihar)偏远的戈西河地区(Kosi River) ──一个经常遭受洪水，没有路可走也不通电的地区──的孩子们。他们在汽车站和火车站找到被出来打工的家人带在身边的民工子女。
When Melinda and I visited India in March 2011, two months after the last case of polio was identified, we traveled to a brick kiln whose workers labored long hours at low wages and lived in mud huts. We met a young mother and asked if her children had been vaccinated. She ducked into her hut, retrieved a bag that held all her possessions, and rummaged around the bottom of it until she proudly produced an immunization card listing the names of all her children and showing that each had received the polio vaccine -- not just once, but several times. We were amazed.
梅琳达和我2011年3月访问印度时，已是最后一例小儿麻痹症被发现的两个月后。我们前往一个砖窑，那里的工人工作时间长，薪水微薄，住在泥棚里。我们见到了一位年轻母亲，并问她的孩子是否接种了疫苗。她 进她的棚屋里，拿出一个装着她全部财产的袋子，翻了个底朝天，直到骄傲地拿出一张写着她所有孩子名字的免疫卡，证明每个孩子都接种了小儿麻痹症疫苗接种──不是只有一次，而是好几次。我们惊呆了。
Wherever India's vaccinators have gone, they've had help from local residents. In one Kolkata slum, a group of schoolchildren who call themselves the Daredevils have been relentless in this effort. Their community had never had house numbers, so the children assigned numbers. Using donated cellphones connected to global positioning satellites, they created a digital map, marking each house where children hadn't been vaccinated.
不管印度接种员们走到哪里，他们都会得到当地居民的帮助。在加尔各答(Kolkata)的一个贫民窟，一群称自己为夜魔侠的学童为此做出了坚韧不拔的努力。他们的社区没有门牌号码，于是孩子们将门牌号码分发到各家各户。他们使用捐赠的手机连接到全球定位卫星，绘制出一张数字地图，标记上每栋孩子尚未接种疫苗的房子。
The fight to end polio is not over, not even in India, and new polio cases in the Horn of Africa and Syria underscore the importance of eradicating polio everywhere. Still, if the world maintains its funding and commitment, we can eradicate the disease globally within six years.
消灭小儿麻痹症的斗争尚未结束，甚至在印度也如此，非洲之角(Horn of Africa)和叙利亚的小儿麻痹症新发病例凸显了在世界各地根除小儿麻痹症的重要性。不过，如果全球各国坚持提供资金并坚守承诺，我们就能在六年内在全球范围内消灭这种疾病。
The accomplishments of India's vaccinators and children and politicians will not end when polio ends in their country. Now that they have found India's children, they can bring them and their families other vaccines, clean water, education, advice on maternal and child health, and support for agriculture -- all the things that people need to live healthy and productive lives.
小儿麻痹症在印度消失了，但印度接种员、孩子们和政治家的成就不会消失。现在，他们已经找到了印度的孩子们，可以给他们和他们的家庭带去其它疫苗、清洁的水源、教育、对孕妇和儿童的健康咨询和农业支持──人们健康富裕生活所需的一切。
Years ago, on that day we were landing in Bangalore, I didn't know nearly as much about India as I do now. I saw India's obvious talent and energy, but, like my colleague, I missed its hidden strength -- the rich, the powerful and the poor working together toward a common goal.
多年前，当我们的飞机在班加罗尔着陆时，我对印度的了解不如现在这样多。我看到了印度显而易见的人才和活力，但和我的同事一样，我没有看到它隐藏的力量──富人、强者和穷人向着一个共同目标精诚合作的力量。
