Where in the world are the Obama women?
Michelle, Sasha, and Malia are in North Africa and Spain for a six-day tour to highlight education, especially for girls, as USAID commits $27 million to the Obamas' Let Girls Learn initiative.
U.S first lady Michelle Obama participates in a conversation with Moroccan adolescent girls moderated by CNNÕs Isha Sesay following the Let Girls Learn program in Marrakech, Morocco on Tuesday.
Youssef Boudlal/REUTERS
The Obama women are on the road again, this time in North Africa and Spain. Michelle, Sasha, and Malia are in North Africa for a six-day tour to highlight education, especially for girls, as the United States Agency for International Development commits $27 million to President and Ms. Obama's Let Girls Learn initiative.
The Obamas began their trip on Monday with a quick stint in Liberia, where Michelle Obama visited a school and spoke with the country's president, Nobel Peace laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. The women also visited a girls leadership camp called Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World), sponsored by the Peace Corps, where Mrs. Obama told girls they should fight to stay in school.
On Tuesday, the three women began a star-studded two-day visit to Morocco with actresses Freida Pinto and Meryl Streep.
Finally, the Obamas will conclude their trip with a visit to Spain on Thursday.
"I'm traveling with my mother and my two daughters," said Mrs. Obama of the visit. "This is the special girl-power unit of the Obama household. We left the president behind because he's a boy."
Michelle Obama stepped up her involvement in women's education issues after Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls from their school in Nigeria in 2014. Just recently, Obama led a collaboration of female artists to create a song titled "This Is For My girls" to promote the importance of women's education.
"I am sitting here now as the US first lady, talking to you, because of my education," said Michelle Obama during a speaking event for young women on Tuesday.
The Obamas are also expected host a conversation with adolescent Moroccan girls to discuss the challenges they and their peers face while attempting to receive and education, according to the Associated Press.
About two-thirds of Morocco's adult population is literate, but only 59 percent of Moroccan women can read, however, compared to 79 percent of men, according to the CIA World Factbook.
During her stay in Morocco, Obama is expected to announce the details of a $100 million grant for secondary education from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, including funds for girls' bathrooms, The Chicago Tribune reports.
The Obamas' Let Girls Learn initiative, which aims to get 62 million more girls into school around the globe, has just received up to $27 million from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), according to the New York Times. Also on the docket for the family's trip is discussion of $400,000 in funding from USAID that will go towards the construction of five dormitories for girls.
This visit is not out of the ordinary for the first lady, who has previously visited several countries, including Japan and Cambodia, to talk about girls' education.