Michelle Obama returns to Spain seeking support for girls’ education

U.S. first lady Michelle Obama arrived on Wednesday in Madrid with her mother and her two daughters, this being her second trip to Spain albeit working visit this time devoted to defending the right of all girls worldwide to an education.

This second visit to the Iberian nation will be very different from the fiveday vacation Ms. Obama enjoyed six years ago with her daughter Sasha and several friends, during which they relaxed on the Costa del Sol, visited the Alhambra and lunched in Mallorca with King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia.

Landing shortly before 6:30 p.m. at a Madrid air base, the official U.S. jet arrived from Morocco, the second leg of the trip Ms. Obama began on Monday in Liberia.

The first lady, daughters Malia and Sasha and her mother, Marian Robinson, were greeted on the tarmac by U.S. Ambassador to Spain James Costos and his partner Michael Smith.

Ms. Obama was also welcomed by top Spanish foreign policy officials and by Marta Carreño, a 14yearold intellectually disabled girl who presented flowers to the first lady.

Significant media attention will be devoted to her activities on Thursday, when she is scheduled to visit a central Madrid neighborhood to present her “Let Girls Learn” project to some 500 female students of all ages, who will listen to her recount experiences from some of her world travels and lobby for providing an education to some 62 million gradeschool girls and teens around the world who currently prohibited by local laws and customs from attending school.

Spain’s Queen Letizia will accompany Ms. Obama at the event and the pair will meet privately afterwards at Zarzuela Palace, the residence of the Spanish royal family.

The first lady’s visit, which will last until Friday, comes a little over a week before President Barack Obama lands in Seville on the first official visit to Spain by a U.S. leader in 15 years.