Michelle Obama described education as a personal issue to her in an op-ed published Wednesday, ahead of the premiere of a CNN documentary that focuses on the first lady’s mission to ensure girls across the world get an education.
{mosads}Barely anyone in the neighborhood she grew up in went to college, Obama wrote. But because of “hard work and plenty of financial aid,” she was able to get an education at top universities.
“For me, education was power,” Obama wrote in a piece published Wednesday on CNN.
“And a few years ago, when I had the honor of meeting Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head just for trying to go to school, this issue got really personal for me.”
Obama said the terrorists who shot Yousafzai, then 15, in her native Pakistan were “trying to silence her voice, snuff out her ambitions, and take away her power.”
That’s what prompted Obama to work on global girls’ education.
“Because right now, there are tens of millions of girls like Malala in every corner of the globe who are not in school — girls who are so bright, hardworking and hungry to learn,” Obama wrote.
“And that’s really the mission of the Let Girls Learn initiative we launched last year: It’s a global effort to give these girls the education they need to fulfill their potential and lift up their families, communities and countries.”
Let Girls Learn has grown significantly over the past year and a half and is working with many countries across the world, Obama wrote. The U.S. is investing more than $1 billion dollars “through new and ongoing efforts and running Let Girls Learn programs in more than 50 countries,” she said.
“And through social media campaigns, Let Girls Learn has rallied people across America and across the globe to step up and be champions for girls worldwide,” she wrote.
“All this is happening because time and again, whether it’s a head of state, a corporate CEO, or a 15-year-old girl here in the United States, when people hear the stories of girls who aren’t in school, they want to help.”
On Wednesday night, CNN’s new film on global girls’ education, “We Will Rise,” will air.
Obama said the film — which discusses the lives of some of the girls she visited this past summer in Liberia and Morocco — is “critically important.”
In those countries, girls “struggle to get an education,” she wrote. Actors and activists Meryl Streep and Freida Pinto joined Obama on her trip.
“Together, we sat down with girls in both countries to discuss the barriers they face and the dreams they hold for their futures,” she wrote.
“Like so many girls around the world, many of these girls come from families struggling with poverty. Some endure dangerous commutes to and from school each day. Others face cultural pressures to drop out, marry young and start having children of their own.”
The girls she met do whatever is necessary to accomplish their dreams, Obama said. She described their long days of work and their devotion to achieving their goals.
“Unlike so many girls around the world, we have a voice. That’s why, particularly on this year’s International Day of the Girl, I ask that you use yours to help these girls get the education they deserve,” Obama wrote.
“They’re counting on us, and I have no intention of letting them down. I plan to keep working on their behalf, not just for the rest of my time as first lady, but for the rest of my life. I hope you will join me.”
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