Michelle Obama’s goodwill tour of Africa came to a close on June 26th, but not without a bang. Tons of people are writing and reporting on the success of this trip!
Mrs. Obama ended her trip to South Africa with a trip to the District 6 Museum, lunch at the Cape Town kitchen, and a pretty unconventional meeting with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
The First Lady and Desmond Tutu discussed HIV/AIDS prevention with Grassroot Soccer, an NGO that uses soccer to educate and mobilize communities against HIV. Instead of meeting indoors, they went out to the field and kicked a few balls. Take a look:
One of my favorite things about the Obama administration is how connected they are on social media. So, when I found out that Mrs. Obama had her own special hashtag for her state visit to Africa, #youngafrica, I wasn’t surprised.
A TweetPic from @Krissah30, a Washington Post reporter who has been following Mrs. Obama since Day 1 of her trip. In this photo, she is sitting with young women leaders at a forum in Soweto.
As promised in my blog post yesterday, here’s an update on some of First Lady Michelle Obama and family’s latest adventures in South Africa and Botswana. Over the last day or so, Mrs. Obama and her family toured the Mandela Foundation, met with Nelson Mandela himself, visited South Africa’s apartheid museum and rubbed shoulders with South Africa’s First Lady Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma. But here’s some fun stuff that I want you to catch up on…
Here’s footage of Mrs. Obama and family getting off the airplane in Pretoria, South Africa. Apparently, Mrs. Obama’s orange and black geometric print jacket is by Nigerian designer Duro Olowu -– great way to show her support for African commerce. And the girls proudly sported giant South African flags.
This week, First Lady Michelle Obama will make her first official state visit to Africa with her two young daughters, Sasha and Malia, and other members of her family (unfortunately, Bo the dog won’t be going). Over the next five days, they’ll be traveling to Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa and Gaborone, Botswana, to see the sights, engage with African leaders and of course, help strengthen our relationship with Africa.
First Lady Michelle Obama just addressed a meeting at USAID, and spoke at length praising USAID’s and Dr. Rajiv Shah’s work and reflecting on her recent experiences in Haiti with Dr. Jill Biden. She also talked about President Obama’s and Secretary Clinton’s commitment to “making development an essential part of our efforts to ensure peace, security and progress in the world.”
Here’s a brief excerpt from her remarks:
Because of your efforts to improve basic health conditions, there are children around the world who are alive today who would have died without your help.
Because of your commitment to sustainable agriculture, we’ve seen the most dramatic increase in food production in history, and we’ve helped you prevent starvation — seen you prevent starvation around the world.
And because of the partnerships you’ve formed with governments, other aid groups, private NGOs, we’ve seen you help advance democracy and protect human rights from Colombia to Nepal.
But as my husband, the President, and Raj have said — that the ultimate job, the ultimate objective here is to create the condition that you are no longer needed. That’s ultimately what you’re working to do. Ultimately your goal is to make it possible for the child in El Salvador to go to school; for the family in the Sudan to live free from fear; and for the woman in Ghana to be able to put food on the table.
That’s why you have always represented what is truly best about America –- the idea that we have an obligation not just to help those in need, but to also help folks beyond our borders build capacity to help themselves.
And I know that the mission has been difficult over the last decade. The work that you do has not been easy. You’ve often been asked to do more and more with less.
And that’s why the President and Secretary Clinton, who, by the way, has done a fantastic job representing America around the world, that’s why together they have made development an important part of foreign policy once again.
In just under 2 hours, the President and the First Lady will speak at a reception commemorating International Women’s Day. You can watch the live stream of their remarks below:
Spirits remained high, even after waiting in lines for 2 hours, to represent ONE at a “Change We Need” Rally in Philadelphia with guests of honor, Michelle Obama and Jill Biden. When we met up with Jill Biden, we were able to hand-deliver a familiar gift. Dr. Biden laughed as she put on her ONE wristband thanking me because she had left her “ONE bands at home.” I think her laugh had something to do with the fact that it was the THIRD band I had given her in two weeks!
Dr. Biden has spent a lot of time in the Philadelphia area lately and ONE volunteers have been there thanking her for her support every step of the way! Perhaps she discussed her multiple campaign trail run-ins with ONE with Ms. Obama who will hopefully receive just as many ONE bands from PA volunteers before November 4!
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
