    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [March 24, 1998]
    [Pages 426-428]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Kisowera School in Mukono, Uganda
    March 24, 1998

        The President. Thank you very much. Thank you and good afternoon.
    President Museveni, Mrs.
    Museveni, Ms. Vice President, Mr. Prime Minister,
    Mr. Speaker; to Education Minister
    Mushega; to their Highnesses, the
    distinguished Kings here; the religious leaders and other distinguished
    leaders of Uganda; Members of our United States Congress, my Cabinet,
    and other important citizens and public servants from the United States.
    And most of all, I want to thank the principals, the teachers, the
    students for showing me this wonderful school, the wonderful young
    people who walked down with us today, and the wonderful dancing exhibit
    we saw here today. Let's give them a big hand, I thought they were quite
    wonderful. [Applause]
        As Hillary said, she and our
    daughter, Chelsea, came to Africa and to Uganda last year. I have heard
    a great deal about Uganda since then, over and over and over again.
    [Laughter] In selecting countries to visit, I almost felt I didn't need
    to come here because I knew enough anyway from talking to Hillary about
    it. [Laughter] She has, I think, become your unofficial roving
    ambassador to the world.
        But let me say I am profoundly honored to be here, honored to be on
    this continent, honored to be in this country, honored by the progress
    that has been made in these last few years in improving economic
    conditions, in improving political conditions. Thank you for what you
    have done, Mr. President, and to all
    of you.
        Earlier today we talked about trade and investment. And President Museveni wants more of both, and he
    should. We talked about political cooperation and how we could work
    together for the future. And I listened very carefully to what the
    President said about the history of Africa, the history of Uganda, the
    future, what mistakes had been made in the past.
        It is as well not to dwell too much on the past, but I think it is
    worth pointing out that the United States has not always done the right
    thing by Africa. In our own time, during the cold war when we were so
    concerned about being in competition with the Soviet Union, very often
    we dealt with countries in Africa and in other parts of the world based
    more on how they stood in the struggle between the United States and the
    Soviet Union than how they stood in the struggle for their own people's
    aspirations to live up to the fullest of their God-given abilities.
        And of course, going back to the time before we were even a nation,
    European-Americans received the fruits of the slave trade. And we were
    wrong in that, as well. Although, I must say, if you look at the
    remarkable delegation we have here from Congress, from our Cabinet and
    administration, and from the citizens of America, there are many
    distinguished African-Americans who are in that delegation who are
    making America a better place today.
        But perhaps the worst sin America ever committed about Africa was
    the sin of neglect and ignorance. We have never been as involved with
    you, in working together for our mutual benefit, for your children and
    for ours, as we should have been. So I came here to listen and to learn,
    to offer my help and friendship and partnership. And I came in the hope
    that because all these good people up here in the media came with me,
    and they're telling the American people back home what we're doing----

    [At this point, someone raised an umbrella to shade the President.]

    [[Page 427]]

        The President. That's okay--I came in the hope--it's not raining, is
    it? [Laughter] It's been cold and cloudy in Washington; I need a suntan.
    [Laughter] I came here in the hope that the American people would see
    you with new eyes, that they would see the children dance, see the
    children learning, hear the children singing, and say, we should be part
    of the same future.
        Today I want to talk very briefly about that future for our
    children. President Museveni and
    Education Minister Mushega have made
    education a top priority, especially through the universal primary
    education program, and I loved hearing the children sing about it.
        But your leaders have done more than talk and sing; they have acted.
    In 5 years, education spending in Uganda has tripled and teachers'
    salaries have gone up 900 percent. I hate to say that; back home,
    they'll wonder why I'm not doing better. And more importantly, you're
    getting something for your investment: better trained teachers, higher
    test scores, improved performance in school attendance from girls. I
    know that Kisowera School is proud that it graduates as many girls as
    boys, because we want all our children to learn so that all of them can
    succeed and make us all stronger. In most African countries, however,
    far fewer girls than boys enroll in school and graduate. One-half the
    primary-school-age children are not in school, and that has led in many
    nations to a literacy rate among adults below 50 percent.
        Africa wants to do better. Uganda is doing better. The United States
    wants to help. Through a new initiative, the Education for Development
    and Democracy, we want to give $120 million over the next 2 years to
    innovative programs to improve education. We want to widen the circle of
    educational opportunity, as is already happening here in Uganda. We want
    to make investments in primary education for those who will educate boys
    and girls, because that is critical to improving health, reducing
    poverty, raising the status of women, spurring economic growth. We want
    to promote girls' education with leadership training and scholarships,
    nutrition training, and mentoring. We also want to support efforts to
    reach out-of-school youths. This is a huge problem in parts of Africa
    where there are children who were soldiers and are now adrift and
    without hope.
        Second, we want to help create community resource centers with
    schools that are equipped with computers linked to the Internet, along
    with books and typewriters and radios for more long distance learning.
    We want them to be staffed by Africans and American Peace Corps
    volunteers.
        Third, we want more new partnerships among African schools and
    between American and African schools, so that we can learn from and
    teach each other through the Internet. We do this a lot now at home.
        Let me give you an idea of how it might work. A student here in
    Mukono could make up the first line of a story and type it into the
    Internet to a student in Accra, Ghana, who could then add a second line,
    and they could go on together, back and forth, writing a story. A
    teacher in New York could give five math problems to students in
    Kampala, and they could send the answers back. One of the very first
    partnerships will link this school, Kisowera, with the Pinecrest
    Elementary School in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. I want more of them.
        Fourth, we want to support higher education with the development of
    business, health care, science, math, and engineering courses. These are
    absolutely essential to give Africans the tools they need to compete and
    win in the new global economy, and we want to help do that.
        Finally, we want to build ties between associations and institutions
    within Africa and in America so that groups in your nations and ours
    concerned with trade and investment, consumer issues, conflict
    resolution, or human rights can connect with distant counterparts and
    learn together and work together. This will empower citizens on both
    continents.
        This initiative will help more Africans, all right, to start school,
    stay in school, and remain lifelong learners. But Americans will learn a
    great deal from it as well.
        We also want to support your efforts in health and nutrition. Uganda
    has suffered so much from AIDS, but President Museveni launched a strong education campaign with frank talk,
    and he has made a huge difference, as have all of you who have worked to
    turn around the AIDS problem in Uganda. We will continue to combat it
    with global research and health care and prevention efforts.
        But these efforts are also essential to combat malaria, an even
    greater killer of Africans. Nearly 3,000 children every day, a million
    each year, are lost to malaria. By weakening as well as killing people,
    malaria contributes to poverty

    [[Page 428]]

    and undermines economic growth. Ninety percent of all malaria cases
    arise on the continent of Africa, but with increasing globalization we
    are all at risk. We now fund in the United States half the research on
    malaria, but we want to do more. This year we've committed $16 million
    more to help African nations fight infectious diseases, including
    malaria, with an additional million dollars to the West African Malaria
    Center in Mali.
        We also want to support good nutrition. There are troubling signs
    that without concerted efforts, Africa could face a major food and
    nutrition crisis in the coming years because of natural causes and
    social unrest. Children cannot learn if they are hungry. So we have
    proposed a food security initiative for Africa to ensure that more
    African families can eat good meals and more African farmers can make
    good incomes. Over the next 10 years, we want to stay with you and work
    at this. In the next 2 years, we propose to spend over $60 million in
    Uganda, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique, and Ethiopia to increase food
    production, enhance marketing, expand agricultural trade and investment.
        I've learned a lot, since I've been here, about Ugandan bananas,
    Ugandan coffee. I will be an expert in all these matters when I go home.
        I want you to understand again what I said at the beginning. We want
    to do these things in education, in health care, and agriculture and
    nutrition because they will help you, because we want to see the light
    that is in these children's eyes forever, and in the eyes of all other
    children.
        But make no mistake about it. The biggest mistake America ever made
    with Africa over the long run was neglect and lack of understanding that
    we share a common future on this planet of ours that is getting smaller
    and smaller and smaller. We do these things, yes, because we want to
    help the children. But we do it because we know it will help our
    children. For we must face the challenges and seize the opportunities of
    the 21st century together. The next century, in a new millennium, will
    be the brightest chapter in all of human history if, but only if, it is
    right for all of our children.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 4:25 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to
    President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda, and his wife, Janet; Vice
    President Wandira Specioza Kazibwe; Prime Minister Kintu Musoke; Speaker
    of the House James Wapakabulo; and Minister of Education and Sports
    Amanya Mushega. A portion of these remarks could not be verified because
    the tape was incomplete.