WASHINGTON, June 16, 2011 - First daughters Sasha and Malia, and their cousins Leslie and Avery Robinson, will accompany First Lady Michelle Obama on her official travels to South Africa and Botswana next week.
During a conference call with reporters and bloggers, the White House said the trip is an extension of Michelle Obama’s work to engage young people at home and abroad and to encourage them to gain international experience, similar to messages she delivered during her visits to Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, India, Mexico and the United Kingdom.
“It’s really a continuation of the work that Mrs. Obama has been doing on her previous trips abroad with the president where she has, throughout the trip, met with students, met with youth to encourage them to excel academically and serve and lead,” the First Lady’s chief of staff Tina Tchen said.
This will be the girls second trip to Africa; the first was in 2009 when they accompanied their parents to Ghana where their dad President Obama addressed sub-Sahara Africa for the firs time.
They will get to accompany their mom on various tours. The trip will include a visit to the Apartheid Museum in Johannesberg, the Hector Pieterson Memorial which honors the twelve year-old boy who protested apartheid and was shot and killed by apartheid government police and to Robben Island, where former President Nelson Mandela was held for 18 of the 27 years he was imprisoned.
The First Lady will meet with Nelson Mandela’s wife, Archbishop Desmond Tutu a the Cape Town Soccer Stadium, site of the 2010 and with the presidents of Botswana and South Africa and their spouses. During the trip Michelle Obama will also deliver the keynote address to a U.S.-sponsored Young African Women Leaders Forum.
Michelle will be following in Laura Bush’s and previous recent First Lady’s footsteps all who visited South Africa during their respective terms as First Lady. During her husband’s presidency Laura Bush visited Africa 5 times and traveled to 10 different countries, the most visits than any other First Lady before her. Bush also traveled widely visiting Burma, Afghanistan and the Middle East.
President Obama, Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia during a 2009 Ghana visit.
During her travels, Laura Bush's twin daughters Barbara and Jenna accompanied her on tours to remote villages. Former First Daughter Barbara Bush has said her 2003 trip to Africa with her parents sparked her interest in global health. She later returned to work in a hospital in South Africa and is currently president of the Global Health Corps, a non-profit organization she founded that is trying to bring health equity to the United States and Africa.
Similarly,while on Spring break in 1997, Chelsea Clinton joined her mother in South Africa during Hilary Clinton's two-week Africa visit. She also toured impoverished areas of the various countries during the trip and later decided to choose southern Africa as her honeymoon destination, vacationing in Namibia after her wedding to Marc Mezvinsky in 2010.
Traveling abroad is a privilege which many professionals who work with and on children agree can expand kids' knowledge, awareness of and appreciation of the world; and give them broader perspectives on issues.
Mrs. Laura Bush and daughter Ms. Barbara Bush examine local wares after a dance ceremony and viewing traditional Karen weaving at the Mae La Refugee Camp at Mae Sot, Thailand, on Aug. 7, 2008.
Several surveys and even the US Department of Education have concluded that children who travel over summer breakdo better in reading, math and their general knowledge than those who do not. Traveling enables kids to broaden their horizons and learn that the world is not made up of the limited confines of their neighborhoods.
Because not all can afford to travel overseas, parents can use summer vacation to take trips to museums, zoos, local beaches and historical monuments to help expand their children's broaden their experiences. Families should make an effort to make sure they get out and travel as much as possible with their children this summer.
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