[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 13 (Monday, March 30, 1998)]
[Pages 490-493]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Kisowera School in Mukono, Uganda

March 24, 1998

    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. In selecting countries to visit, I almost 
felt I didn't need to come here because I knew

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enough anyway from talking to Hillary about it. 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--it's 
not raining, is it? It's been cold and cloudy in Washington; I need a 
suntan. 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 teacher 
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, 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

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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 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

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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 Specioza W. Kazibwe; Prime Minister Kintu Musoke; Speaker of 
the House James Wapakabulo; and Minister of Education and Sports Amanya 
Mushega. A tape was not available for verification of the content of 
these remarks.