TIME

The View From Here

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.

WINNIE BYANYIMA

A Letter to Lucy

Lucy is a young HIV-positive domestic worker in Kenya

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

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