First Lady Obama to Travel to Japan and Cambodia to Promote Girls Education

As part of the White House’s Let Girls Learn initiative that promotes girls education globally, First Lady Michelle Obama is traveling to Japan and Cambodia to speak with policy leaders and students about the need to improve educational opportunities for young women everywhere.

Traveling from March 18-22 with Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet, FLOTUS will first stop in Tokyo to meet with Mrs. Akie Abe, who is the spouse to Japan’s prime minister. During this visit, First Lady Obama will talk about the collaboration between the Peace Corps and Japan’s Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, which will help expand the learning resources afforded to girls. Following this discussion, FLOTUS and Mrs. Abe will meet with Japanese university students to share their own educational backgrounds and experiences.

On March 20th, the first lady will then travel to Cambodia, which is one of the first 11 countries to be included in the Let Girls Learn Peace Corps initiative. While there, Mrs. Obama along with the first lady of Cambodia, Mrs. Bun Rany, will meet with high school students to hear how they benefit from community-led programs like the Peace Corps and Room to Read, which is a nonprofit organization that focuses on literacy and gender equality specifically in Asia and Africa.

Currently, there are 62 million girls around the world who are not in school, with half of them being adolescents. In an effort to address this problem, President Obama and first lady launched the Let Girls Learn initiative as a way to provide equal educational opportunities to girls around the world.

Throughout her trip, First Lady Obama will share her journey and experiences through daily online diary entries and a collaboration with PBS Learning Media.

To stay up-to-date with the initiative follow the hashtag #LetGirlsLearn on social media and be sure to follow @FLOTUS on Twitter and @MichelleObama on Instagram.