US first family visit Liberia to promote girls education

By Mark N. Mengonfia

MONROVIA, Liberia (AA) – Michelle Obama made a brief stop in Liberia on Monday where she and other members of the U.S.’s first family visited institutions to promote the education of girls.

Male and female students stood in the rain as they waited for Obama, her daughters, Malia and Sasha and Marian Robinson, Obama’s mother.

The first family made a stop in Margibi at the Let Girls Learn -- a global initiative by Obama to place girls in school.

They also visited a peace corps training facility in Kakata, where the first lady interacted with girls and young women participating in a Girls Leading Our World Camp, also known as GLOW.

The camp is a peace corps program that addresses the specific needs of young women in their local communities.

The Obamas also visited a school in Unification Town and held discussions with adolescent girls who have faced serious obstacles obtaining an education.

The first lady highlighted the U.S. government’s work to help adolescent girls go to and stay in school and, with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, sat in a classroom where young girls explained some of those obstacles, including access and a lack of resources.

Sirleaf is Africa's first elected female president and has had to deal with the aftermath of the deadly outbreak of Ebola that hit the country in 2014 and 2015 that killed more than 4,800 victims. Many children in Liberia were forced to miss months of school because of the epidemic.

With smiling faces, the girls said they would not allow the obstacles to end their dream of becoming great women.

The first family ended their visit after spending just seven hours on the ground.

The visit was part of a three-nation tour to draw attention to the millions of girls around the world who, for various reasons, are not in school.

The Obamas next stop is Morocco before ending their tour in Spain later this week.