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More than a third of Morocco's population of 34 million is
illiterate - one of the highest rates in North Africa, and the
rate is higher for women at 41 percent, official data shows.
"I am sitting here now as the U.S. first lady, talking to you,
because of my education," Michelle Obama told a dozen girls from
different towns.
The U.S. government's Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) was
launched during her visit and includes $100 million to be spent
on 100,000 Moroccan students, half of whom will be teenage
girls. The funds come from $450 million given by the MCC last
year to boost education and employability in Morocco.
Michelle Obama stepped up her campaign for girls' education
after Islamist group Boko Haram seized 276 girls from their
school in Nigeria in 2014 and she highlighted their plight
through a Twitter hashtag, #BringBackOurGirls.
She spent Sunday and Monday in Liberia, where she visited a U.S.
Peace Corps site and a school with President and Nobel Peace
laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, promoting Let Girls Learn, a
U.S. government initiative begun with her husband in 2015.
(Editing by Louise Ireland)
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