Laura Bush greets five girls awarded the Ambassador Girls’ Scholarships, funded under the AEI, at Grand Medine Primary School June 26. Winners are, from the left: Khady Diome, 15; Fatou Djiby, 15; Christine Ndiaye, 14; Yamama Diop, 15; and Nango Dang, 16. The goal is to award 555,000 scholarships by 2010, enabling disadvantaged girls throughout Africa to receive an education.

The scholarships are intended to help girls who would otherwise be pressured to marry early and become domestic servants improve their opportunities through education.

“Educated citizens will keep themselves in better health, and pass their knowledge along to their communities and to their children,” Bush said. (White House/Shealah Craighead)