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:

Photo courtesy of Grassroots Soccer

In Botswana, Mrs. Obama didn’t skip a beat. After being greeted by President Iana Khama, she helped paint murals with HIV/AIDS support groups, spoke at a luncheon for young women, and in the footsteps of First Lady Laura Bush, toured Madikwe Park Reserve.

Mrs. Obama and President Ian Khama of Botswana. Photo courtesy of @Krissah30

t
Mrs. Obama at District 6 Museum in Cape Town. Photo courtesy of @Krissah30

Here’s a pic of Mrs. Obama and her daughters discussing this former Robben Island inmate’s experiences during the anti-apartheid movement.

As, anticipated by many young and aspiring leaders, Mrs. Obama spoke at the University of Cape Town.

The Obama family dine at The Kitchen, a famous hot spot in Cape Town. Photo courtesy of@Krissah30

Fun fact: Any idea what Mrs. Obama’s favorite food is? Well, she admitted to a group of students at the University of Cape Town that she loves French fries!

And Mrs. Obama and her family went on safari in Botswana where they searched for lions, giraffes and elephants:

First Lady and her family on Safari in Madikwe Game Reserve

The Obama women may have returned home on Sunday, but there’s tons more information at your disposal about the First Lady’s trip. Check out blogs on her fashion choices for the tour and even the transcript of her remarks at the Women’s Leadership luncheon. And, of course keep reading all #FlotusinAfrica and #youngAfrica tweets as the tour comes to a close.

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.

For the past couple of days, we’ve been following her adventures on the White House blog and retweeting some of the cool stuff we found with the #youngafrica hashtag. But now, it’s your turn. Lauren Pfeifer from the policy team and I teamed up to create these five RT-worthy tweets for you to use on Twitter. They’re focused on youth in Africa, education, health and other issues Mrs. Obama is championing on her trip.

Educated kids make more money. Girls w 1 extra yr of ed above average earn 10–20% more; for boys, 5–15%. #youngafrica (via @ONECampaign)

School saves lives: 1 year of schooling reduces infant mortality by 5-10% #flotusinafrica #youngafrica

62% of Africans are under 25, representing huge potential for the workforce, economic growth and leadership. #youngafrica (via @ONECampaign)

School=healthier choices. When a girl receives 7 years of education, she marries 4 yrs later & has 2 fewer kids #youngafrica @onecampaign

168 mil women are active in sub-Saharan African economies, & another 50 mil will enter in nxt 10 yrs. #youngafrica #flotusinafrica

Don’t forget to use the #youngafrica or #flotusinafrica hashtags. And follow the feed to see if the State Department, USAID or the White House picks up your Tweet!

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.

Then, Mrs. Obama and family headed to Nelson Mandela’s house to hang out and discuss Mandela’s notebooks from when he was in Prison.…Here’s a twitPic from @Krissah30 of the Obama ladies with this anti-apartheid icon.

The girls followed in their mom’s footsteps and did a little diplomacy work of their own. Look how cute they look reading Dr. Seuss to children at the Emthonjeni Community Center.

Photo courtesy of @Krissah30

And…lastly, Mrs. Obama was warmly greeted by First Lady Ntuli-Zuma.

To keep tabs on where the Obama ladies are this week and who they are meeting, follow the Twitter hashtags #youngAfrica and #FlotusinAfrica. People are talking on there…and so should you. See what I mean?

This is just a sliver of the tons of live coverage of Mrs. Obama’s goodwill tour. Come back tomorrow for more updates.

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.

The First Lady is focusing her trip on African youth, education, health and wellness. But don’t take it from me. Listen to the First Lady herself in her video message from the White House blog:

She will also be the keynote speaker at a US-sponsored young African women’s leadership forum in South Africa. The attendees at this forum will be accomplished female leaders in Sub-Saharan Africa who are involved in social and economic initiatives. Mrs. Obama will also take the time to reflect on the history of South Africa and its resilience at the Johannesburg Apartheid Museum and Robben Island Prison Museum in Cape Town,where Mandela (and other apartheid leaders) was once imprisoned. Mrs. Obama is also very excited to visit Botswana, a country that the Obama administration has praised for its strong governance.

Mrs. Obama’s trip is part of the White House commitment to strengthen diplomatic relations with Africa, as highlighted in President Obama’s 2009 speech in Accra, Ghana As President Obama noted, a newly globalized economy means that Africa’s development, security and health is deeply connected to our own. In the past few months, the Obama administration has bolstered its efforts to strengthen relations with Africa.

Mrs. Obama is not the only White House official to visit Africa this year -– Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is on an official trip to Africa, too. Just last week, she visited Tanzania, Zambia and Ethiopia, and became the first secretary of state to address the African Union. She shed light on the importance of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which we covered on the ONE Blog, and delivered remarks at the AGOA forum in Lusaka, Zambia.

I hope you’re as excited about these official visits as I am -– and thanks to the magic of Twitter and Facebook, you can follow along Mrs. Obama’s trip. The White House Blog will have some pretty spiffy links, photos and blog posts of the trip, so be sure to check there for updates. And don’t forget to check the #YoungAfrica hashtag on Twitter, which you can check here.

Because there has been so much focus on youth in Africa, networks like MTV and BET will be covering Mrs. Obama’s visit as well (how cool is that?). Check out BET’s video special, “Impact on Africa: On a Mission with the First Lady” and look out for updates on MTV’s website.

We’ll be following her trip all week, so stay tuned. And come back tomorrow…our policy team is putting together tweets on facts and statistics about African youth that you can share with Mrs. Obama.

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.

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!

-Lauren Conn

Check it out at one.org/voices.

For more than a year, ONE members have been trailing the presidential
candidates asking them to go on the record with their plans to combat global poverty. Now we’re taking our message to the airwaves with this major new TV ad. The spot spot features Matt Damon with different Americans’ voices – among them Michelle Obama, Cindy McCain and Mayor Bloomberg.

Share this online sneak preview with your friends now, and then watch for it on TV nationally starting Sunday, August 24th.

You can learn more about the ad here.

-Virginia Simmons

ONE member Nick Means was able to snap this quick shot of ONE member Jennifer Bryce banding Michelle Obama this week in Chillicothe, OH.

With the Ohio presidential primary on Tuesday, we’ll see being seeing more and more ONE members across the state showing the candidates that Ohio cares about global poverty and disease.

-Katie Andrews