White House Release Ahead of Ghana Trip

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                     July 10, 2009

EXAMPLES OF WHAT U.S. EMBASSIES IN AFRICA ARE DOING TO ENGAGE AFRICAN PUBLIC ON THE PRESIDENT'S GHANA SPEECH

The U.S. Mission to the African Union (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) will host a  screening/panel discussion at the African Union's historic plenary hall for  over 200 representatives of 53 African countries.

Embassy Cotonou (Benin) will bookend its screening for over 100 with video  highlights from President Obama's inauguration and the AF Bureau's 50th  anniversary celebration (October 2008).

Embassy Freetown (Sierra Leone) will host screenings for over 500 at  community cinema centers throughout the country, as the centerpieces of its  traditional/new media outreach that has reached the bulk of the country's  population.

The Somalia Virtual Presence post (co-located in Kenya with Embassy  Nairobi) will host a screening/discussion with the 50 Somali officials/media  that are scheduled to be in Nairobi that day.

Embassy Djibouti (Djibouti) will host its screening/discussion the  Ambassador's residence for 100 guests.

Embassy Pretoria (South Africa) will cap the new media outreach that has  reached millions with screenings for over 1000 invited guests in Pretoria,  Johannesburg, Capetown and Durban.

Embassy Lilongwe (Malawi) had to rent a hall and utilize its American  corner to accommodate the 200 guests invited to its screening.

Embassy Luanda (Angola) will conclude the traditional/new media outreach  that has reached tens of thousands with a screening/discussions at the  Ambassador's residence.

Embassy Brazzaville (Republic of Congo) will host a screening/discussion  for 100 at its Villa Washington community center.

Embassy Abidjan (Cote d'Ivoire) will use its network of three American  Corners in addition to the Embassy to screen the speech for over 500  guests.

The State Department's African Regional Media Hub arranged for Safaricom,  Kenya's leading mobile phone network provider, to streaming the speech live  from a VOA feed. Safaricom's subscriber base is 17 Million, and it reaches  into the most remote corners of the country.

Our Embassy in South Africa partnered with MXit, a continent-wide social  networking service, to solicit question an comments for the president.  Hundreds of thousands of Africans responded.