{"id":526944,"date":"2010-04-13T23:34:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-14T03:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16711557.post-1557478427939388466"},"modified":"2010-04-13T23:34:01","modified_gmt":"2010-04-14T03:34:01","slug":"michelle-obama-makes-haiti-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/526944","title":{"rendered":"Michelle Obama Makes Haiti Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
World-renowned recording artist Alicia Keys and Michelle Obama share a joke. The First Lady was reported to have attended Keys’ concert at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. on March 25, 2010.<\/a>
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

Michelle Obama makes Haiti trip<\/p>\n

The First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, has made an unannounced visit to Haiti.<\/p>\n

It was her first official trip overseas without US President Barack Obama since he took office last year.<\/p>\n

She spent several hours in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, visiting projects set up in the wake of the devastating earthquake in January.<\/p>\n

Mrs Obama then flew on to Mexico for a previously announced visit due to last three days.<\/p>\n

Mrs Obama flew over Port au Prince by helicopter, and was greeted by the Haitian president and his wife by the ruins of the presidential palace.<\/p>\n

She described the destruction she witnessed as “powerful”.<\/p>\n

Next stop was a school where the First Lady clapped along as the children sang and danced to greet her. “Let’s hold hands like good friends,” they sang.<\/p>\n

In one of the buses serving as a classroom, Mrs Obama sat at a small table and painted colourful pictures with the children.<\/p>\n

Mrs Obama then toured a partly ruined college. One woman looking on told me she hoped the visit would focus attention on the plight of Haitians.<\/p>\n

As the US winds down its military presence, Mrs Obama’s visit is meant to underscore the United States long-term commitment to helping the people of Haiti.<\/p>\n

The trip was kept a secret for security reasons.<\/p>\n

The White House said the aim of the visit was to “underscore to the Haitian people and the Haitian government the enduring US commitment to help Haiti recover and rebuild”.<\/p>\n

The BBC’s Laura Trevelyan, who is travelling with Mrs Obama, says US troops who have been helping with the aid effort are leaving and Haitians are wondering what comes next.<\/p>\n

President Obama has previously stated that America will be a reliable partner and will continue to help reconstruction efforts, even though US troops are leaving the area.<\/p>\n

About 230,000 people are believed to have died in the quake.<\/p>\n

More than a million people lost their homes and many are now living in makeshift camps.<\/p>\n

Thousands are being moved to higher ground as the forthcoming rainy season increases the risk of landslides.<\/p>\n

Story from BBC NEWS:
http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/go\/pr\/fr\/-\/2\/hi\/in_depth\/8618445.stm
Published: 2010\/04\/14 01:38:11 GMT
<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

World-renowned recording artist Alicia Keys and Michelle Obama share a joke. The First Lady was reported to have attended Keys’ concert at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. on March 25, 2010.Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos Michelle Obama makes Haiti trip The First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, has made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4243,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-526944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526944\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}