Julia Roberts joins Michelle Obama in Vietnam to encourage girls' education

It’s not every school day that a former First Lady and a Hollywood A-lister come into class.

Michelle Obama and Julia Roberts gave a group of school students a morning to remember earlier today (9 December) as part of their mission to promote girls’ education in Vietnam.

The visit is part of an ongoing charitable trip to the Far East that’s been organised by the Obama Foundation, and Roberts will speak on Thursday (12 December) alongside Obama at a panel at the Foundation’s inaugural Leaders: Asia-Pacific conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Today’s engagement saw the Foundation’s Girls Opportunity Alliance invite Obama and Roberts to a school in the Long An province to meet students who are benefiting from programs which aim to ‘help adolescent girls reach their full potential through education’.

Speaking to the students, Obama highlighted the ‘power, voice and opportunity’ that girls can achieve through education.

‘When you educate a girl you give them power and a voice and an opportunity to improve their lives and the lives of their family and the lives of their community,’ she told the students (via Business Recorder).

‘I want you all to stay committed and focused, it will get tough at times — it already has for some of you — but it is well worth it.

‘Even if your families don’t understand that today, trust me they will, when you go off to college or start your businesses.’

Inspiring words as ever from Michelle Obama, and she and Roberts were pictured smiling and laughing with the students throughout their visit to the school.

Speaking to AFP, 16-year-old student Truong Thi Hai Yen said she was particularly inspired by hearing Obama’s words of wisdom.

‘She kept trying every day to be better, and now we can see that she is very successful.’

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