Sabita Devi. From the Facebook page of Melinda Gates.
Sabita Devi, a villager from north India, exemplifies the growing role of women in developing countries and how it can "change the world", says Melinda Gates, wife of Microsoft founder and American business tycoon Bill Gates.
"When I think about the women who are changing the world, I think about a woman I met in rural India last spring named Sabita Devi," Ms Gates posted on Facebook on Wednesday. With it, was an article penned by Ms Gates herself, which talks about their meeting during her visit to India earlier this year.
The article was published in a magazine of the WI - a well-known voluntary women's organisation of Britain that was formed in 1915 to encourage women to be more involved in food production during the First World War.
"For much of her (Sabita Devi's) life, her world was very small. Like many women, she spent most of her days at home. Almost no one knew her name... But on 20 December 2001, she joined a self-help group; this was the day her life began to change," Ms Gates wrote in the article, which appeared in the September edition of the WI Life magazine.
When Ms Gates -- the 51-year-old co-chairperson of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation -- met Sabita Devi, she had already applied for a grant for the first toilets in her village, and tackling the growing alcohol problem as well.
The article goes on to describe the transforming power of self-help groups in India, which changed Sabita Devi from a simple housewife to an active decision-maker, when the "whole village knows her name".
On September 26, the UN will set targets for improvement in areas such as education, poverty, nutrition and health, but the key will be in ensuring that it reaches the poorest and women and girls, according to Ms Gates.
"When women such as Sabita have the chance to participate in the economy, they spend 80 cents of every dollar they make on their children... they prioritise household spending on healthcare, nutritious food and education, the building blocks of a healthy society," Ms Gates wrote.