Michelle Obama delivers message supporting girls education

Former first lady Michelle Obama on Saturday called for more action to help young girls obtain an education in a video prepared for the Global Citizens Festival.

“Today, 130 million girls of all ages are still not in school,” Obama said at the event, a music festival that focuses on addressing global humanitarian issues. “This breaks my heart, both as a woman whose life was transformed by my education and as the mother of two daughters who wants them and every girl on this planet to fulfill her boundless potential.”

“So while times change and I may no longer live in the White House, I have no intention of walking away from these girls,” she said.{mosads}

Obama also announced that the Obama Presidential Center would focus on creating programs and ways to address the lack of education for young women internationally.

Obama attended the Festival in 2015, when she discussed her “Let Girls Learn” education initiative.

President Trump’s administration denied a May report by CNN that it had ended the program. CNN had obtained an email from the Peace Corps announcing that the program would continue, but without the “Let Girls Learn” brand. 

“In too many parts of the world, girls are still valued more for their bodies than their minds,” then-President Obama said of the program when it was announced in 2015. “That’s just wrong. And we have to do more to stop it.”