KAKATA: First lady Michelle Obama visited a leadership camp for girls in Liberia to launch her latest Africa visit on Monday in a country still recovering from the recent Ebola epidemic that left thousands dead.

“I am just so thrilled to be here with you,” the first lady told the young women at the Peace Corps-sponsored project in Kakata. Earlier she was welcomed to Liberia’s capital with a red carpet and traditional dancers wearing the red, white and blue colours of both countries’ flags. After meeting Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Mrs Obama travelled 70 kilometres along a heavily potholed road to Kakata.

The first lady is travelling with her mother and daughters Malia, 18, who recently graduated from high school, and Sasha, 15. Education for girls is the central theme of the first lady’s trip, which also includes stops in Morocco and Spain.

Liberia was battered by civil wars between 1989 and 2003. Then Ebola swept the country in 2014, killing more than 4,800. Teachers died and schools were closed for months.

The country was founded as part of an effort to resettle freed American slaves and has deep ties to the United States. The country’s oldest vocational high school, located in Kakata, is named for the African-American civil rights activist Booker T. Washington. The school suspended mid-term exams scheduled to start on Monday “to allow the students to give Mrs Obama a rousing welcome to appreciate what the United States has done for us,” principal Harris Tarnue said.

“She will be a real inspiration to the young girls around here,” he said.

Mrs Obama’s previous visits to Africa as first lady have included Ghana, South Africa, Botswana, Senegal and Tanzania.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2016