Former U.S. First Lady Laura Bush Keynote Speaker, 96Th International Convention, Hamburg, Germany
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Former U.S. First Lady Laura Bush Keynote Speaker, 96th International Convention, Hamburg, Germany Thank you very much, thanks everybody! Thank you all, and thank you very much, Wayne Madden, the president of Lions Clubs International! Also thanks to Hamburg’s mayor Scholz for welcoming us all to your beautiful city. I am happy to be with all of you for the Lions Clubs International Convention. Thank you for asking me to join you, and thank you for the great work that Lions Clubs do in each one of your communities. You’ve been giving the gift of sight to millions of people worldwide since you were first inspired in 1925 by Helen Keller. And now, you are beginning reading and literacy programs, causes that are near and dear to me. Lions Clubs everywhere are organizing service projects everywhere to address the literacy needs in each of your communities. You’re finding ways for parents and children to read together, and you are continuing to give the gift of sight with free eye exams to make sure that everyone can see to read. Thank you all very much for your marvelous work. George and I are now back home in Dallas, Texas, and we’ve been busy building the George W. Bush Presidential Center. As part of the Bush Presidential Center, we’ve established the Bush Institute, a public policy institute, where we can address the policy areas that were the most important to us when George was president. And, as you might guess, at the Bush Institute, there’s an overriding theme of freedom. Freedom from ignorance, our education initiative. Freedom from disease, our global health initiative. Promoting free enterprise, our economic initiative and freedom from tyranny. George has a special program to support the men and women of the United States Military, and I am chairing the women’s initiative. Last week we were in Africa, where we launched our global health initiative, the Pink Ribbon, Red Ribbon. Pink Ribbon, Red Ribbon adds the testing and treatment of cervical and breast cancer to the AIDS platform that was set up during the years when George was president. Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among African women. In Zambia, we refurbished a health clinic, painting and installing medical equipment. In the yard, dozens of women gathered waiting for us to finish the construction, so they could come in and be screened for cancer. Later, in Tanzania, the Bush Institute hosted an African First Ladies’ conference. Michelle Obama and Cherie Blair from England joined us and eight African first ladies to discuss good health for women and education for women and girls. We’ve had a busy and exciting year so far. In April, at the dedication of the Bush Presidential Center, we were honored that President Obama and each of the former American Presidents joined us, including and especially, my father and mother-in-law, President George H. W. Bush and Barbara Bush. At age 88 and 89 they are doing very well. George and I believe they are showing us the way to age with grace. In Maine, my mother-in-law walks her dogs on the beach every day, twice a day. From both of George’s parents we have learned all we know we have is now. So take advantage of your life as it is, and walk on the beach every chance you get. But the biggest event we celebrated this year was the birth of our first grandchild, our new granddaughter Mila. She is perfect, and our daughter Jenna and our son- in-law Henry are thrilled with their new baby. Although they have to be careful of being trampled by George and me in our rush to get our hands on that darling child. Everybody has been asking us what our grandparents’ names are. It seems that in the United States these days, many grandparents are choosing special names for themselves. Maybe grandpa and grandma have gone out of style in a pretense that we’re not really old enough to really be grandparents. When I had Barbara and Jenna, my dad said: “They can just call their old Pa.” And that’s what they did. But now it’s sort of like choosing a name for your cat. Barbara and Jenna recently emailed that, for absolutely no apparent reason–and I am not kidding –they think my grandparent name should be Mimi Maxwell. George just wants the baby to call him “Sir.” (Laughter) We are happy that our girls are doing well. Jenna and Henry Hager are enjoying life with their new baby. Jenna is working as a contributing correspondent for NBC’s Today Show. George says, she is just continuing the Bush family tradition of warm relations with the media. (Laughter) Our daughter Barbara has founded a nonprofit called Global Health Corps that places recent college graduates in the health field in underserved areas. Her third group of Health Corps Fellows is at work in three cities in the United States and in five countries in Africa. You can learn more about Global Health Corps, if you are interested, or if you know a young person, who might be interested in becoming a fellow, by looking on the web at GHCorps.org. George and I are proud of the work our girls are doing, and we are happy to be back home in Texas living what I call the afterlife in a state George calls the Promised Land. (Laughter) There are some people from the Promised Land here, as you can tell. Now, that George and I have left the White House and moved into our new home in Dallas, our lives are back to normal. But I think I might have forgotten what “normal” is. When you are married to the President of the United States, you don’t worry too much about him leaving his wet towels on the floor. But in Dallas, things are different. Memo to the ex-president: turmoil in East Timur is no longer an excuse not to pick up your socks. Since we’ve been home, we both have written our memoirs (No. 1 New York Times best sellers, by the way) and I learned when Barbara and Jenna introduced me at a speaking engagement recently that they were a bit disappointed in my book. They knew that their librarian mother had named her cat Dewey after the Dewey decimal system. But they thought that when they read my book, they would discover the wild, secret life they just knew I would be hiding from them. Instead, their blandest suspicions about me were confirmed: they learned, for instance, that as a child, I harbored an insatiable love for–of all things–school supplies. I still do. I love school. Which is why I am happy to be here with so many people, who are dedicating themselves to improving reading and literacy. And thank you to all of the Lions Clubs for doing that. Worldwide, more than 796 million adults are illiterate. Two thirds of those are women. And 67 million children are not in school. Helping each of these men, women and children learn to read is one of the greatest challenges of our time. A woman in Afghanistan once told me: “When I was sick, I couldn’t find my way to the doctor because I couldn’t read the signs.” If people can read, they are more likely to know not only how to get to the doctor, but how diseases like HIV and malaria are transmitted. If they know that information, they can take the precaution and make informed decisions that will keep them and their families safe and healthy. Literacy lifts men and women out of poverty and it opens doors of opportunity. Educated citizens learn the skills they need to find jobs and to support their families. And as women and men participate in business and trade, they strengthen the economic development of their countries. Educated people are empowered to participate more fully in society. Literacy enables them to ask questions and to understand their rights. They can read an election ballot and they can make informed decisions about their governments. Literacy education is especially important for women and girls, who are far more likely than boys to be left out of the classroom. In fact, the majority of illiterate adults are women. Research shows that when you educate and empower women, you improve nearly every other aspect of society. As the great Egyptian poet Hafez Ibrahim said: “When you educate a woman, you create a nation.” In 2002, fewer than 900,000 boys and no girls were enrolled in school in Afghanistan. Today, more than 6.2 million students are enrolled in Afghanistan’s schools, and 35 percent of them are girls. These are signs of great progress but many challenges remain. Girls may be persecuted on their way to class. Newly opened schools have been vandalized or destroyed. In many rural areas, those who teach, receive letters threatening their lives and the lives of their children. We all know the story of Malala, the school girl in neighboring Pakistan, who was shut by a Taliban gunman because of her passionate support for the education of girls. The good news is that there are many women and men, who are willing to risk their own lives for the education of others. One such woman is Dr. Sakina Yukubi of Afghanistan. At great personal risk, Dr. Yukubi operated underground literacy centers during the years of the Taliban rule.