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Africa: President and Mrs. Bush Discuss Policy, Trip to Continent
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The White House (Washington, DC)
DOCUMENT
14 February 2008
Posted to the web 14 February 2008
United States President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush spoke about their upcoming five-nation tour of Africa on Thursday, February 14, 2007 at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC. Their full remarks follow below:
MRS. BUSH: Thank you very much, Mark. I get to speak first and introduce the President. Thank you, Mark, for your efforts to lead our country's efforts to defeat HIV/AIDS. Thank you very, very much for everything you do around the world.
This is such important work -- and it's work that's saving lives across Africa. Thanks to everyone who helped produce this video, and thanks to everyone here for coming.
Tomorrow, President Bush and I leave for what will be my fifth trip to Africa since 2001, and his second trip to Africa since 2001. I've seen the determination of the people across Africa -- and the compassion of the people of the United States of America.
This compassion is at work through U.S. initiatives that improve education, reduce poverty, and fight pandemic disease. In Ghana, at the Accra Teacher Training Institute, students receive textbooks supplied through our country's Africa Education Initiative. In Mozambique, mosquito nets are provided to children by the President's Malaria Initiative. In Mali, President Tour is using a Millennium Challenge Compact to build his country's infrastructure, and to bring prosperity to Mali's people. In South Africa, HIV-positive pregnant mothers keep their babies HIV free with support from the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
In Zambia, I visited the Mututa Memorial Center, which is supported by PEPFAR. At this center, caregivers fan out on bicycle and foot to all the neighborhoods around, and they go door to door with care kits and with antiretroviral drugs. They tend to the people who are sick and they encourage their clients to be tested for HIV. And they literally just cold-call door to door, and often find people who are so sick in bed they can't get up to get help for themselves.
My daughter Jenna was on that trip with me, and we had a roundtable with some caregivers and some patients. And two young HIV-positive women, Sarah and Mwelwa, cried as they told us during this roundtable about their stories of -- they told us their stories of abuse and rape and how they became HIV positive.
Mwelwa is an AIDS orphan, and Sarah was the oldest child living without her mother because her mother had to live in another place to find work. So both girls were vulnerable to what happened to them.
As Jenna and I went up to them afterwards, after the roundtable, and I told them in private that Jenna had written a book about a girl in Central America who had a similar experience to them, Jenna and I were moved when these girls said to Jenna, "I wish you would write my story."
Of all these visits to Africa, on all of them, I've heard stories like Sarah's and Mwelwa's. These are stories of courage and hope, and they're also stories being written with the help of the American people. Both in Africa and here at home, Americans share their time and their money with those in need.
American business leaders are working to provide safe drinking water for children in Zambia. American schoolteachers are holding book drives to rebuild libraries in Liberia. Last summer, I met an American man named Steve Bolinger who is helping to feed AIDS patients in Senegal. During his time in the Peace Corps -- (applause) -- Steve learned how important good nutrition is to people who are living with HIV. So Steve is now using his experience growing up on a farm in Kansas, and his experience as a Peace Corps volunteer, to run his own NGO, Development in Gardening -- or, appropriately, DIG.
Across Africa, American citizens like Steve are giving the very personal gifts of their talent and their energy -- and they're saving lives. They represent one of America's most distinguishing characteristics, and that is our sincere desire to see other people succeed.
Now I get to introduce a man of deep compassion, whose work has saved many lives. And I'm very proud to introduce my husband, President George W. Bush. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: I've been looking forward to coming to the museum, and there's an added benefit, and that is, I get to be introduced by my wife on Valentine's Day. (Laughter.) Happy Valentine's.
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This morning Laura and I join all Americans in honoring the life of Congressman Tom Lantos. In his remarkable 80 years, Tom Lantos survived the Nazi camps of Hungary to reach the halls of Congress. As a representative from California, he was a fearless defender of democracy, a powerful advocate of human rights, and a strong supporter of the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Our prayers are with Annette and the Lantos family. We thank God for his service.
Five years ago, Laura and I made our first visit to Africa. Since then, as she mentioned, she's taken three more trips. And every time, she came back with fascinating stories, some of which she just shared with you. And tomorrow, as she mentioned, we're going back, and I'm really looking forward to it.
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