Hoping to extend ‘Let Girls Learn’ beyond 2017, the Obamas lay out a road map
By Juliet Eilperin and Krissah Thompson October 11 at 6:00 AM
Seeking to ensure that President and Michelle Obama’s signature “Let Girls Learn” initiative lasts long after they leave office, on Tuesday White House officials will outline the strategic reasons for educating young women overseas and unveil a raft of new commitments totaling more than $5 million.
The new pledges from the private sector include $2.5 million from the public health group RISE UP’s program to enable girls to finish school and delay early marriage in Malawi; a $1 million donation by Newman’s Own Foundation to support both Peace Corps initiatives and the Kibera School for Girls in Kenya; $500,000 from the Central Asia Institute to provide services for girls in Afghanistan; along with $400,000 from Endeavor Energy and $200,000 from Water Charity and the National Peace Corps Association to fund Peace Corps volunteers’ work.
Taken together with previous funding, Tuesday’s announcements mean that in a year and-a-half Let Girls Learn has garnered more than $1 billion in support for federal programs to educate girls in 50 nations around the globe.
Tina Tchen, who serves as assistant to the president and the first lady’s chief of staff, said in an interview that the program has developed into a “whole of government” operation led by the National Security Council that includes the State, Labor and Agriculture Departments as well as the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Peace Corps and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
The initiative has become one of the Obamas’ more prominent development programs, in the way that the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief helped define part of George W. Bush and his wife Laura’s legacy. It has been the focus on Michelle Obama’s overseas trips in recent years, and while visiting East Asia last month President Obama announced that Let Girls Learn will start up in Laos and Nepal.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hoping-to-extend-let-girls-learn-beyond-2017-the-obama-lay-out-a-road-map/2016/10/10/cd477150-8f3e-11e6-9c52-0b10449e33c4_story.html?wpisrc=nl_politics&wpmm=1
