Michelle Obama goes to Africa to promote girls’ education
Girls' education
Michelle Obama speaks on International Women鈥檚 Day in March, also marking the first anniversary of Let Girls Learn
United States First Lady Michelle Obama travelled to Africa yesterday with daughters Sasha and Malia and her mother as part of an effort to promote girls鈥 education, her office said.
The six-day trip will include visits to Morocco听and Liberia. She will also visit Spain. The trip will highlight听the work of , a US government initiative听launched by President Barack Obama and the first lady in听2015.
That project is part of 鈥渁 US government effort to address听the barriers that keep over 62 million girls around the world听out of school, particularly adolescent girls,鈥 the first lady鈥檚听chief of staff, Tina Tchen, told reporters on a conference call.
Michelle Obama will be joined by actresses Meryl Streep and听Freida Pinto in Morocco, where they will talk to adolescent听girls on the challenges they face in getting an education, her
office said.
In Liberia, she will visit a US Peace Corps training听facility and a school along with Liberian President Ellen听Johansson Sirleaf, Africa鈥檚 first female elected head of state听and a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Michelle Obama鈥檚 interest in education for young girls was听heightened after militant Islamist group Boko Haram seized 276听girls from their school in Chibok, northeast Nigeria, in April听2014. She highlighted their plight through the Twitter hashtag,听#BringBackOurGirls.
鈥淭his is a unique trip in the sense that the first lady is听going to three different regions that are important to the听United States 鈥 Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and Europe,鈥 Ben听Rhodes, assistant to the president, told reporters on the same听call.
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