Mrs. Bush will make her first stop late Monday in Senegal, where she plans to award scholarships to local girls and visit a hospital in Dakar.
Among her other stops will be a school in Lusaka, Zambia, where a PlayPump water system has been installed. PlayPumps use power created by children playing on merry-go-rounds to pump clean water.
The Bush administration recently asked Congress to increase U.S. funding to counter AIDS to $30 billion over the next five years.
In 2003, the United States initiated a $15 billion package (the President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief) to fight HIV and AIDS, with most of the money slated for African nations. That mandate is up in September, 2008.
The first lady is also scheduled to visit Mozambique and Mali on her tour, which ends Friday. This is Mrs. Bush's third trip to Africa on her own. - VOA News
