Michelle Obama to Promote Girls’ Education During Asia Trip

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Michelle Obama to Promote Girls’ Education During Asia Trip Mar 18, 2015 22:28:38 GMT

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Post by Admin on Mar 18, 2015 22:28:38 GMT

First Lady Michelle Obama embarks on a five-day Asia trip Wednesday to launch the Obama Administration’s initiative "Let Girls Learn," promoting the education of millions of girls worldwide. Ahead of her stops in Japan and Cambodia, Obama and her husband said the inability of an estimated 62 million girls to attend school worldwide should be a foreign policy priority.

The first lady wrote in The Wall Street Journal that the fact that tens of millions of girls are not being adequately educated is more than “a tragic waste of human potential. It is also a serious public health challenge, a drag on national economies, as well as global prosperity, and a threat to the security of countries around the world.”

In launching the "Let Girls Learn" campaign earlier this month, the first lady said the Peace Corps, a U.S.-funded volunteer development agency, would play a key role. "This effort will draw on the talent and energy of the nearly 7,000 Peace Corps volunteers serving in more than 60 countries. Through this effort, Peace Corps will be supporting hundreds of new community projects to help girls go to school and stay in school," she said. "And, I want to emphasize that these programs will be community-generated and community-led. They will be based on solutions devised by local leaders, families and even, yes, the girls themselves."

"We know that, when girls are educated, they’re more likely to delay marriage. Their future children, as a consequence, are more likely to be healthy and better nourished. Their future wages increase, which, in turn, strengthens the security of their family, and national growth gets a boost as well," the president said. "From a political standpoint and a security standpoint, places where women and girls are treated as full and equal citizens tend to be more stable, tend to be more democratic. So, this is not just a humanitarian issue. This is an economic issue and it is a security issue, and that’s why it has to be a foreign policy priority."

Mrs Obama's trip comes at a time of high tension for Americans in Japan, as Tokyo police investigate phone calls threatening to kill U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and Alfred Magleby, the U.S. consul general based on the southern island of Okinawa. Her arrival also coincides with a visit by former president Bill Clinton, who is in the country to deliver a keynote speech at the JFK International Symposium held at Waseda University in Tokyo. During the five-day trip, Mrs Obama will also visit Cambodia - whose leader, Hun Sen, has a reputation for ruthlessness, and where child prostitution and human trafficking is rife - to highlight a campaign supporting education for girls.

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Michelle Obama to Promote Girls’ Education During Asia Trip Mar 19, 2015 22:14:11 GMT

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Post by Admin on Mar 19, 2015 22:14:11 GMT

Michelle Obama suggested a lunch date with Shinzo Abe at his wife's restaurant on Thursday, offering the Japanese prime minister a place at her table next time she is in town.

The US first lady gave a ringing endorsement of Akie Abe's "izakaya" -- a traditional Japanese-style pub -- after eating there with her opposite number on the second day of her visit to Tokyo.

"Prime Minister, first of all, your wife is an amazing woman," said Obama, as she met Abe at his office. "And the restaurant is good, so you have to try it. Maybe the next time I come to visit, you can join us." In a good-natured exchange at Abe's office, he revealed: "Actually I've never been to the restaurant".

Earlier in the day Obama, who is in Japan to launch the "Let Girls Learn" initiative,told an audience there was a global "crisis" that left 62 million girls without the chance of an education. "We often focus on the economic barriers girls face –- school fees or uniforms, or how they live miles from the nearest school and have no safe transportation, or how the school in their community doesn’t have bathroom facilities for girls," she said.

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Michelle Obama to Promote Girls’ Education During Asia Trip Mar 20, 2015 21:59:48 GMT

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Post by Admin on Mar 20, 2015 21:59:48 GMT

Just before the cherry blossom festival in Washington, D.C., a symbol of the relationship between the U.S. and Japan, Michelle Obama made her first ever visit to the island nation. Although the purpose of her fourth official solo trip abroad as first lady was to promote her Let Girls Learn initiative, a program aimed at training local activists and community leaders to help young women connect with education opportunities, Obama didn't deprive herself of fun. Over three days, Obama indulged in Japan's rich and ancient culture. First stop, Tokyo.

Obama stepped off the plane in a vibrant green dress by Kenzo, a French fashion house founded by Japanese designer Kenzo Takada.

Obama met her Japanese counterpart, Akie Abe, the wife of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at the country’s capital.

Accompanied by Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, Obama enjoyed a breathtaking view of one of Japan’s oldest cities, Kyoto, from one of Japan’s oldest Buddhist temples, Kiyomizu-dera.

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Michelle Obama to Promote Girls’ Education During Asia Trip Mar 21, 2015 21:51:33 GMT

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Post by Admin on Mar 21, 2015 21:51:33 GMT

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama is in Cambodia where she spoke Saturday at a Peace Corps training event in the city of Siem Reap, home to Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temple complex. The visit is part of a two-nation trip meant to highlight a new global women's education initiative.

Accompanied by Bun Rany, the wife of Cambodia's prime minister Hun Sen, Obama told the schoolgirls to stay in school and take advantage of their education to demand greater freedoms in their impoverished country. "Let girls learn' is about giving girls like you here, all the girls who are here, giving you a voice in your communities and in your country,'' she said. The trip is the first time that the wife of a sitting U.S. president has visited the Southeast Asian country.

Speaking alongside her Japanese counterpart, Akie Abe, on Thursday, Obama said the U.S. and Japan would work together on the "Let Girls Learn" initiative. "My education was truly the starting point for every opportunity I have had in my life. But I know that for every girl like me, there are so many others across the globe who are just as smart, just as capable, just as hungry

to succeed, but they have never had a chance to go to school," Obama said.

In an opinion piece this week in The Wall Street Journal, Obama said 62 million girls not in school represents a "tragic waste of human potential." "It is also a serious public-health challenge, a drag on national economies and global prosperity, and a threat to the security of countries around the world, including our own," she said.

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Michelle Obama to Promote Girls’ Education During Asia Trip Mar 22, 2015 21:50:23 GMT

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Post by Admin on Mar 22, 2015 21:50:23 GMT

Michelle Obama may be our best-dressed FLOTUS yet, but did you know she once was denied the "Best Camper" award because she swore too much? That's just one of the surprising discoveries from biographer Peter Slevin's new book about our current First Lady, Michelle Obama: A Life, out April 7. We got an early peek at the book, which follows Michelle from her working-class beginnings all the way to the White House with husband President Barack Obama. Here are 10 things you may not have known about Mrs. Obama:

1. During law school, she once dated the son of Patti LaBelle
"At Harvard," writes Slevin, "one beau was law student Stanley Stocker-Edwards, the adopted son of singer Patti LaBelle. Nothing lasted. [Michelle] said later, 'My family swore I would never find a man that would put up with me.' "

2. She handled marketing for Coors beer and Barney the dinosaur
"Michelle's assignments at Sidley [law firm in Chicago] ranged from the AT&T account to a series of marketing matters for Coors beer and Barney, the purple dinosaur on public television. "One colleague said the work could be thankless and, frankly, dull – for example, reading storyboards to determine whether a beer advertisement conformed to television industry rules and standards. 'I knew Michelle was frustrated,' said John Levi, a senior partner who remained a friend."

3. At 10, she was denied the ''best camper'' award because of her salty tongue
"At a city-run camp [on the shores of Lake Michigan], 10-year-old Michelle missed out on the best camper award because of her salty tongue. 'I was going through my cursing stage,' she said. 'I didn't realize until my camp counselor at the end came up and said, "You know, you would have been best camper in your age group, but you curse so much." ' The news floored her. 'And I thought I was being cool.' "

4. Her grandmother once told a co-worker that Michelle was hardheaded and needed a spanking from time to time
"On her way to becoming grandmother in residence at the White House, Marian [Robinson] would report that Michelle's younger daughter, Sasha, then age 7, reminded her of Michelle at the same age. 'Just like Sash. She always had her own opinions about things and she didn't hesitate to say so, because we allowed it.' LaVaughn Robinson, Michelle's paternal grandmother, told a co-worker that Michelle was 'hardheaded' and needed a spanking from time to time, but that she and Craig were good kids."

5. Her mother was wary of Barack's biracial heritage
"That didn't concern me as much as had he been completely white," Slevin quotes Marian Robinson as saying. "And I guess that I worry about races mixing because of the difficulty, not so much for prejudice or anything. It's just very hard."

6. She left a $120,000 job as a law firm associate when she moved to City Hall for public service
"Although Michelle had concluded that finances would not be the deciding factor in her professional choices, the quest for fulfillment was going to cost her. Leaving Sidley for City Hall meant cutting her salary roughly in half, to $60,000 a year, when she still had significant student loan debt. 'It just seemed incredible at the time that she would leave,' Angela Kennedy, her Princeton friend, said."

7. Barack and Michelle lived upstairs from her mom before they got engaged
"Back in Chicago after graduation [from Harvard Law], Barack lived with Michelle on the top floor of the Euclid Avenue house, upstairs from Marian Robinson, as he studied for the Illinois bar exam," writes Slevin.

8. Michelle had to nag him to marry her
"One night, at a fine dinner for two, ostensibly to celebrate his efforts on the Illinois bar exam, Michelle against raised the question of marriage and began haranguing him for his refusal to commit. Dessert came. On Michelle's plate was a box containing an engagement ring. She was floored, and thrilled. Barack laughed, 'That kind of shuts you up, doesn't it?' "

9. As a teen, she splurged on a Coach handbag, much to the consternation of her mother
"From the time she was young, Michelle had watched her pennies even as she made calculated indulgences. One was a Coach handbag she bought with her babysitting money. Marian gasped when Michelle informed her of the cost, telling her daughter that she would never spend such a crazy amount on a purse. Right, Michelle answered, but you'll go through ten handbags in the time I have this one."

10. Michelle worried about Barack getting assassinated on the campaign trail
"While there would be 'great sympathy and outpouring if something were to happen, I don't want to be in a position one day where I am vulnerable with my children,' she told writer David Mendell. 'I need to be in a position for my kids where, if they lose their father, they don't lose everything.' "