SIEM REAP — US first lady Michelle Obama on Saturday urged Cambodian students to stay in school and take advantage of their education to demand greater freedoms and more equality in their country.
Mrs Obama made the comments at a meeting with 10 girls who shared tales of rising early to feed their families before heading off on long treks to school and studying late into the night.
"You are role models to the world," she said, calling on the students to use their voices "to advocate for good things — whether it's more education, better healthcare, more freedoms, more equality.
"You now will have a voice and you will have the training and education to use it for good. Not just here in Cambodia, not just here in Siem Reap, but in the world. I hope that you all will feel empowered to do that."
Mrs Obama's visit to Hun Sen Prasaat Bankong high school near Siem Reap was part of a five-day trip to Asia to promote the US-led education initiative "Let Girls Learn".
She was accompanied to the school by Bun Rany, the wife Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled the country for 30 years and is the frequent target of criticism for rights abuses.
Let Girls Learn, to be run by the Peace Corps, is meant to help get 62 million girls around the developing world back into classrooms.
Mrs Obama's trip marks the first by a sitting American first lady to Cambodia. Her husband became the first US president to visit Cambodia in 2012, when he pressed Hun Sen in private on a variety of human rights and political issues during a meeting that White House officials described as "tense".
Cambodia is one of 11 countries where Let Girls Learn is being rolled out. The others are Albania, Benin, Burkina Faso, Georgia, Ghana, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Togo and Uganda.
After meeting students Saturday, Mrs Obama spoke to a group of US Peace Corps volunteers and called on them to share American values with their students.
"Values like equality, inclusiveness, fairness, openness ... aren't just American values, we know this. They are universal human values," she said.
"When girls get educated, when they learn to read and write and think, that gives them the tools to speak up and talk about injustice and demand equal treatment. It helps them participate in the political life of their country and hold their leaders accountable."
While Cambodia has made great strides since the devastation wrought by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, the school droput rate remains high. According to Education Ministry statistics released last year, 95% of children enter primary school but only 20% finish secondary school.
Poverty is the main problem, especially in rural areas, where families can't afford the minimal costs of education and keep children home to help support the family, according to Unicef.
Cambodia's problems with child prostitution, child labour and human trafficking also play a role, and often target girls.