Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by First Lady Jill Biden at an Event to Launch Partnership for a Lead-Free Future
New York City, New York
Thank you.
It’s great to be with so many world leaders, your Excellencies from Malawi, the Dominican Republic, and Nepal.
Director General of the World Health Organization and President Banga of the World Bank, I’m glad to see you both again. And I appreciate your support of this new coalition.
I’m also grateful to Open Philanthropy, which has been at the forefront of the fight against lead poisoning in children for many years.
To Cathy Russell and Administrator Power: thank you for inviting me to join you today.
Cathy and I have known each other for decades. Beyond the causes we both care so deeply about-from expanding opportunities for women to protecting and lifting up children-I’m grateful for our friendship. You and the team at UNICEF take on some of the world’s toughest challenges and you make a difference in every life you touch. Thank you.
And Samantha Power, Joe’s intrepid Administrator of USAID, I am inspired by all that you do. The only thing greater than your determination to tackle humanitarian challenges around the world is your optimism for creating a healthier, safer, brighter future for people everywhere.
Several years ago, I traveled to Jordan.
There, I met Ms. Maha, a principal of an all-girls’ school.
More and more families were arriving to her community from Syria after fleeing violence. And Ms. Maha’s school was already at capacity.
One day, a mother showed up, desperate to enroll her daughter.
The mother had tried and been turned away at so many other schools.
So, with tears in her eyes, she pleaded with Ms. Maha to find a place for her daughter.
Ms. Maha loves her students. And she said, “I think love is giving as much as you can.”
So she made a promise.
Send your daughter to class with a chair, and she can enroll.
In the days that followed, more and more young girls showed up-carrying any chair they could find-so they could go to school and learn.
As educators, we don’t sit with problems.
We solve them.
I saw this in the classrooms I visited in rural Malawi.
The teachers found inventive ways for their students to learn through songs, rhythm, and repetition.
Even from my own experience, like four years ago, when the pandemic hit and schools in the United States went silent.
Overnight, educators had to learn how to use Zoom and reimagine lesson plans so we could reach our students.
Our world is full of complexities and conflicts.
But for the problems we can solve we can’t hesitate.
In Principal Maha’s words: We must give as much as we can.
Every year, the United Nations General Assembly meets to recognize our shared challenges and to find ways to overcome them.
Right now, around the world, parents give their children toys so they can learn and play.
They prepare meals with everyday cookware to keep their family fed.
All the while, dangerous amounts of lead seep into their lives.
And the consequences are irreversible.
These children will never reach the full potential they were born with because lead poisoning is so pervasive.
But it’s a problem we can solve.
I’m proud that this new partnership is committing more than $150 million, which will jumpstart efforts to end childhood lead exposure in developing countries.
This funding is 10 times more than what’s been spent annually on this problem to date.
And it has a coalition behind it: Partners-from governments to industry to advocates-who will phase out lead from everyday products, enforce safe standards, and create a lead-free future for every child.
Through the Partnership for a Lead-Free Future, UNICEF and USAID believe we can end childhood lead poisoning by 2040.
Education is my life’s work.
And I often think of what leaders might learn from teachers, who know that the future isn’t some far off place.
It’s right before them, in their students who are striving to learn and grow.
Teachers who don’t stop at problems, they push through.
Teachers who love what they do. And love is giving as much as you can.
Children will reach for the promise that resides within them-if we do our part, everything we can, to break down the barriers in their way.
It’s going to take all of us, pulling up chairs and joining this coalition to end lead poisoning.
That future is within our grasp.
Let’s reach for it, together.
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