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Saturday, November 6, 2010

The Hindu : Front Page : Education will take you places, Michelle Obama tells children

The Hindu : Front Page : Education will take you places, Michelle Obama tells children

Education will take you places, Michelle Obama tells children

Rahi Gaikwad

Plays hopscotch and missing letter activities with inmates of orphanages

Mumbai: Driving home the power of education and its ability to let you achieve great heights, First Lady Michelle Obama forged a bond with children of Mumbai orphanages by alluding to her own humble upbringing. Ms. Obama met 23 children from four orphanages and volunteers of Make A Difference (MAD), a voluntary association of students, at Mumbai University here on Saturday.

“Michelle Obama said we are very lucky. Education is very important for us,” 12-year-old Sagar Jadhav told The Hindu.

In her message on education, Ms. Obama spoke of her own position as First Lady as a symbol of the heights one can reach with education. Vikas Hotwani, a MAD volunteer said, “She said her journey of life was also not easy. That, when she took over as the First Lady of the U.S., she could do justice to all the responsibilities because she had the power of education. She told the children that with education they could rise up just as she did.

“She told the children all they needed to worry about was their education. It was not like her family had a lot of money. It was education that brought her to where she is,” said Gloria Benny, a MAD volunteer from Hyderabad.

Around 18 volunteers met Ms. Obama along with the children.

With inspiration, Sagar earned a tangible proof to brag about to his friends. An autograph of the First Lady on a piece of paper. “The first thing