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LTC Deb Haller, an American C-17 pilot, posted at the American Embassy to Tanzania welcomed students from Jitemegee Secondary School to view a film about female pilot and aviation heroine Amelia Earhart in honor of Women’s History Month.

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LTC Deb Haller, an American C-17 pilot, posted at the American Embassy to Tanzania welcomed students from Jitemegee Secondary School to view a film about female pilot and aviation heroine Amelia Earhart in honor of Women’s History Month.

US C17 Pilot, LTC Deb Haller, introduces Amelia Earhart to Tanzania

Venue: American Embassy, Dar es Salaam

March 26, 2009

To honor women and men in the United States who have struggled and are still struggling for women’s rights, the United States of America celebrates Women’s History Month every March. I wanted to come and welcome you all to our Embassy since the American people have given significant support to Jitegemee Secondary School.

We recently provided $130,000 to construct two new classrooms and renovations including a new roof/ceiling, and installation of electrical wiring, doors and windows. The project also included a concrete platform capable of supporting four 15,000 liter water storage tanks including pipes and fittings to connect the tanks to the existing electric pump. The refurbishment and additional construction of this school is the result of our strong partnership between the United States and the Tanzanian Ministries of National Defense and Education. The completion of this construction represents a commitment by the American people toward the strengthening of education in Dar es Salaam. Also, your headmaster traveled to the U.S. for a three-week study tour on “Elementary and Secondary School Education Issues” in March 2007.

This year, our focus is on women who have changed the world and in particular, our environment. In his March 3 Proclamation, President Barack Obama paid tribute to: Ellen Swallow Richards the first woman in the United States to be accepted at a scientific school, conducted a survey of water quality in Massachusetts that led to our Nation's first state water-quality standards; Rachel Carson whose book Silent Spring brought even greater attention to the environment by exposing the dangers of certain pesticides to the environment and to human health; Grace Thorpe, who connected environmental protection with human well-being by emphasizing the vulnerability of certain populations to environmental hazards and proposed that America invest in alternative energy sources such as hydroelectricity, solar power, and wind power; Maria Sanford and Marjory Stoneman Douglas for their work in protecting the natural forests and everglades. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paid tribute to women around the world when she addressed the U.S. State Department on March 12, “I am continually inspired, as I have been for 35 years, by the women I meet who are risking their lives, their reputations, their standing in their families and communities, facing difficult and dangerous circumstances to advance the cause of human rights.”

Here in Tanzania, the U.S. Embassy is celebrating Women’s History Month with a number of activities: I encourage you all to look at the paper show outside our Information Resource Center highlighting men and women’s efforts to fight for women’s suffrage – the right to vote; film shows about famous women who were instrumental in getting women that right to vote; earlier today, our Charge d’Affaires honored Hon. Anne Malecela with the Tanzania Woman of Courage Award for her efforts to fight corruption; and next week, we are hosting a round-table discussion with alumni of our exchange programs looking at women’s rights in the U.S. and in Tanzania. These activities will be the start of many activities planned over the next several months in the lead-up to Tanzania’s 2010 elections to share America’s history of the struggle for the right to vote.

So I would like to introduce the following film about one of my own personal heroes, Amelia Earhart. The story of one of America’s most famous aviators – an uncommon heroine, a legendary aviator and the focus of one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time – when she disappeared while attempting to fly around the world. I, like Amelia Earhart, am a pilot. I fly C-17’s, one of the largest planes in the U.S. Air Force. I hope her story inspires you as much as it has inspired me. Asenteni sana.