America’s first lady, Michelle Obama, her mother, Marian Robinson and her daughters Sasha and Malia are in Africa to promote girls’ education with her signature “Let Girls Learn” campaign.
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She spent Sunday and Monday in Liberia, where she visited a U.S. Peace Corps site and a school with President and Nobel Peace laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, promoting Let Girls Learn, a U.S. government initiative begun with her husband in 2015.
She arrived bearing gifts – up to $27 million in USAID for that country’s Let Girls Learn initiative, a program launched in March of past year by President and Mrs. Obama, according to a White House announcement.
USAID announced during the visit that it would provide $27 million in funding in Liberia for the Obama’s educational initiative, Let Girls Learn.
Visiting Marakech with actresses Meryl Streep and Frieda Pinto of the “Slumdog Millionaire” film, she told girls in attendance she wanted them to be part of a global conversation on female education. Today, and in conjunction with the First Lady’s travels, the White House provided additional details on MCC’s $100 million investment in what it referred to as “a new model for secondary education in Morocco”, citing activities like “mentoring programs, internships, after-school clubs, upgrading bathrooms and changing rooms for girls”, and more. The initiative brings together the U.S. Department of State, U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Peace Corps, the Millennium Challenge Corporation and other agencies to address the range of challenges – both in and out of the classroom that make it hard for over 62 million girls to get the education they deserve. Major barriers to adolescent girls’ enrollment include the limited number of middle and secondary schools particularly in rural areas, and the lack of safe and affordable transportation options available to girls traveling to school.
USAID pledged to spend $400,000 through an NGO to establish five new dorms for girls across the country.
Sasha Obama says girls around the world face challenges that prevent more than 62 million from getting an education. In the North African kingdom of Morocco, only 36 percent of girls continue school beyond the primary level.
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‘We need every one of our citizens, boys and girls, to be empowered, ‘ Obama said. The Peace Corps will train incoming volunteers and community leaders to advance girls’ education and empowerment, and will work with local leaders to focus on girls’ development through a renewed focus on building critical skills for leadership and employment.
