Archive - March 3, 2015

Attending the announcement of Let Girls Learn in the East Room of the White House today were Peace Corps Director, Carrie Hessler-Radelet, and these ‘old hands’ from the Glory Days of the agency. Former Senator, architect of the agency, CD Ethiopia, Harris Wofford, Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet, Colombia RPCV Maureen Orth, and former Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan photo courtesy of Maureen Orth

Dear Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, Today, I am delighted to share that as part of the U.S. government’s commitment to girls’ education, First Lady Michelle Obama and the Peace Corps have formed a powerful collaboration called Let Girls Learn to expand access to education for girls around the world. I invite you to watch a special message from the First Lady to all Peace Corps Volunteers-and the staff who support them-worldwide. While we know that educating girls is essential to healthy and thriving communities, globally, 62 million girls are not in school, and barriers to adolescent girls completing school are particularly significant. In some countries, fewer than 10 percent of teenage girls complete secondary school. The Peace Corps’ collaboration with the First Lady will start this year in 11 targeted countries: Albania, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Georgia, Ghana, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Togo, and Uganda. Under Let Girls Learn, we will . . .

Thanks to Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65) for the ‘Heads Up’ news on this new program for girls’ education that the President and the First Lady, along with the Peace Corps Director, Carrie Hessler-Radelet, will announce this Tuesday afternoon in the East Room of the White House. This program–Let Girls Learn–will help adolescent girls across the world receive an education. The Let Girls Learn initiative will build on a United States Agency for International Development campaign launched last year to provide an education to the more than 60 million girls not in school. It focuses on empowerment and leadership, health and nutrition and protection against gender-based violence protection and forced marriages, among other issues. The Peace Corps will look for ways to overcome the barriers that prevent girls from completing their educations, including the cost of a uniform, school fees, lack of textbooks, Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet told reporters. The . . .