US to give $70 million aid to Pakistan for girls education: Michelle Obama

WASHINGTON: America will give $70 million aid to Pakistan to provide adequate education and health care for some 200,000 adolescent girls in the country, first lady Michelle Obama has announced.

"Building on Pakistan's commitment to double education spending, the US will be investing $ 70 million to educate adolescent girls in Pakistan," Michelle said at a White House event she hosted for Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's wife, Kalsoom Nawaz yesterday.

During the event 'Joint US-Pakistan Let Girls Learn', Michelle said with this funding, the US will build more than a dozen new schools and rehabilitate hundreds of others.

"We are going to be setting up health screenings for thousands of girls to ensure they are getting the medical care they need. We will be funding skills-training programmes and college scholarships for girls," she said.

"And, taken together, these efforts will reach 200,000 girls in Pakistan," Michelle said.

This investment, she said, represents a major milestone for these girls and for Pakistan.

"But I want to be clear that today's announcement is actually part of a much bigger story about global girls' education -- a story that started last spring here, at least for us, at the White House when the President (Barack Obama) and I launched our new initiative called Let Girls Learn," she said.