First Lady Michelle Obama Announced More Foreign Trips to Promote ‘Let Girls Learn’

By ASSOCIATED PRESS and ALEXANDRA KLAUSNER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Michelle Obama says she’ll do more foreign travel to promote education for girls in developing countries.

The first lady announced a new program earlier this year to help adolescent girls improve their lives by attending and staying in school called, ‘Let Girls Learn.’

She since has traveled to Japan, Cambodia and London to promote the initiative and even stopped to have tea with Prince Harry.

While in London she traveled with her daughters Malia, 16, 14-year-old Sasha and her mother, Marian Robinson.

Mrs. Obama says the U.S. will continue to urge developed countries to join the effort.  

And when they join, she says ‘I’m going to hop on a plane and join them’ to highlight the work.

The first lady says she’ll also visit developing countries to show how the program benefits girls and their communities.

She spoke on Monday in Washington D.C. at an awards luncheon sponsored by the women’s magazine More. Actress Robin Wright was also at the coveted event.

‘This is exactly the kind of work that I plan to do for my remaining time as first lady, and beyond,’ Obama said at More Magazine’s Impact Awards luncheon at Washington, D.C.’s Newseum on Monday.

Mrs. Obama said that she is no better or smarter than the women she is helping. She said that the difference between her and those in third world nations is that she had access to education.

‘Instead of having to work or support family, I got to go to school,’ Obama said.

She said that girls all over the world deserve to feel safe and to live up to their true potential.

‘We would never accept a life of dependence and abuse for our girls,’ Obama said during her speech at a lunch sponsored by MORE magazine.

‘We would never allow their bodies to be violated or for their potential to be squandered. We have to ask ourselves, “Why would we accept this fate for any girl on this planet?”‘

Obama said that in some countries, girls are willing to risks their lives in order to get an education so they may as well have a school to fight to attend.

‘These girls are willing to risk their safety, even their lives to get an education,’ she said.

‘So the least we can do is make sure they have a school to attend.’

Obama said that the initiative ‘can’t just be the work of government,’ and that she plans to continue her path even beyond her service as first lady.