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US honours Kenyan students
24/04/2007 22:19 - (SA)
Washington - Laura Bush, the president's wife, honoured three Kenyan students on Tuesday for being the first women from their home communities to go to college.
Introducing a new video about President George W Bush's Africa education programme, Mrs Bush highlighted the programme's goals of promoting education for girls, providing textbooks and training teachers.
The Maasai students recognised by Mrs Bush - Eunice Kaelo, Evelyn Nkadori and Agnes Kisai - are success stories of the initiative's effort to educate girls.
According to US Agency for International Development, girls account for about 60% of the 42 million African children not enrolled in schools.
"They understand that their education begins a new chapter in their lives, but also in the lives of their people," said Mrs Bush.
15 million textbooks
All three young women graduated from high school and travelled to the United States to study at Chicago State University.
Launched in 2002, the $600m Africa Education Initiative has awarded more than 250 000 scholarships, trained more than 600 000 teachers and provided almost four million textbooks and other materials.
The programme aims to give 550 000 scholarships and train more than 900 000 teachers by 2010, said Mrs Bush.
The shortened version of the 30-minute video shown on Tuesday at the Academy for Educational Development highlighted the programme's efforts in Senegal, Kenya and Zambia. The video was presented in honour of the UN's Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's Education for All week.
In a visit to Ghana last January, the first lady announced a component of the initiative that would provide 15 million textbooks to sub-Saharan Africa.
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