Against the faraway backdrop of President Trump’s “hard power” budget that would slash U.S. foreign aid in favor of military spending increases, former President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush are in Africa this week with a gentle reminder that the “soft power” of helping neighbors is powerful still.
The Bushes are on a three-day visit to Botswana and Namibia as part of their George W. Bush Institute’s work on global women’s health and women’s leadership. As they highlighted great health and education advances made on the continent with the help of U.S. aid, the couple’s counterpoint to the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts was hard to miss.
Referencing the U.S. Congress, which will take up Trump’s budget, the former president said in Botswana: “Now is not the time to abandon the efforts that have taken place up to this point. The American people ought to be proud of what has taken place here. We should believe that every life matters, and every soul is precious.”
Along the way, he and the former first lady snapped some sweet photos underscoring that point.
“We’re thrilled to be back here,” Bush said of his visit, which included stops at local schools. “Botswana is a unique country.”
During the three-day stay, Bush made a speech at the home of Ambassador Earl Miller in Botswana about the Bush Institute’s affiliate program, Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon, which fights breast and cervical cancers in the developing world. Since its founding in 2011, Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon has screened over 20,000 women for cervical cancer, and given over 70,000 HPV vaccinations. The program is an extension of PEPFAR, which Bush started during his first term in the White House to do the same sort of work with HIV and AIDS, and is a partnership with the Susan G. Komen foundation as well as UNAIDS and the Bush Institute.
The Bushes have visited Botswana twice, and Africa four times since leaving the White House in early 2009. Beyond health care, this trip also focused on improving the lives of women and girls in these countries, including educational and economic opportunities. Bush said that though he chose to leave politics after his time as president, he and Laura didn’t want to fully leave public policy — so instead, they chose to remain active in causes close to their hearts, like this one.
In a classroom in Botswana, Bush left one school girl wide-eyed as they listened to the stories of mothers who had been treated for cervical cancer and daughters who had been vaccinated to prevent the disease.
“It broke my heart that even though a woman’s life might be saved from HIV/AIDS, she was needlessly dying of cervical cancer,” he said. “I just couldn’t imagine the despondency that would happen in some of these villages where a mom was now living but died of a disease that we could cure and fix with the right kind of policy.”
During the visit, Bush showed off his playful side with hugs and high-fives.