page_title: Laura Bush
section_title: Foreign trips
hierarchical_section_title: Laura Bush / First Lady of the United States / Foreign trips
caption_attribution_description: Mrs. Laura Bush talks with Raphael Lungo, 10, during a discussion with caregivers and beneficiaries of the Mututa Memorial Center in Lusaka, Zambia. The center provides many humanitarian services including home-based care for people living with HIV/AIDS, care for orphans and promotes abstinence and faith for youth.
context_page_description: Laura Lane Welch Bush is an American educator who was First Lady of the United States as the wife of President George W. Bush, from 2001 to 2009. Bush previously served as First Lady of Texas from 1995 to 2000.
  Born in Midland, Texas, Bush graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in education, and took a job as a second grade teacher. After attaining her master's degree in library science at the University of Texas at Austin, she was employed as a librarian.
  Bush met her future husband, George W. Bush, in 1977, and they were married later that year. The couple had twin daughters in 1981. Bush's political involvement began during her marriage. She campaigned with her husband during his unsuccessful 1978 run for the United States Congress, and later for his successful Texas gubernatorial campaign.
  As First Lady of Texas, Bush implemented many initiatives focused on health, education, and literacy. In 1999–2000, she aided her husband in campaigning for the presidency in a number of ways, such as delivering a keynote address at the 2000 Republican National Convention, which gained her national attention.
context_section_description: During her husband's second term, Bush was more involved in foreign matters. She traveled to numerous countries as a representative of the United States.
  As First Lady, she took five goodwill trips to Africa. The purpose of these has mostly been to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and malaria, but Bush has also stressed the need for education and greater opportunities for women. She has taken many other trips to other countries to promote and gain support for President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS relief; these countries include Zambia (2007), Mozambique (2007), Mali (2007), Senegal (2007), and Haiti (2008).
  In mid-2007, she took a trip to Myanmar where she spoke out in support of the pro-democracy movement, and urged Burmese soldiers and militias to refrain from violence. Later that October, she ventured to the Middle East. Bush said she was in the region in an attempt to improve America's image by highlighting concern for women's health, specifically promoting her breast cancer awareness work with the US-Middle East Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research. She defined the trip as successful, saying that stereotypes were broken on both sides.
  Overall, Bush traveled to 77 countries in the eight years of her husband's presidency, touring 67 of those during the second term.
caption: Laura Bush talks with Raphael Lungo of Zambia as a part of her 2007 African trip
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