Nobel Laureate Malala Visits Pakistan, Rallies Support for Girl's Education
18:31 22.12.2022 (Updated: 18:32 22.12.2022)
© Photo : Twitter/ @MalalaFund
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Malala Yousufzai's fund has given nearly $10 million for girls’ education in Pakistan but there are still millions of girls out of school in the country.
Oxford graduate, Nobel laureate and terrorist attack survivor, Malala Yousafzai is no ordinary girl.
During her recent visit to Pakistan she met with government officials, stakeholders in education, development community, journalists and students. Her relentless work to promote girl's education has earned her the nickname "the bravest girl in the world."
Malala began her fight for girls from an early age as an education activist in Pakistan. She later became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate and today she continues her campaign through the Malala Fund.
Malala was born in Mingora, Swat Valley in Pakistan on July 12, 1997 to a school teacher and his wife. In 2008 after Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan* (also known as Pakistani Taliban**) as took control of their town in Swat, things for the Yousafzai family changed.
The extremists banned many things such as owning a television and playing music. They enforced severe punishments for anyone who defied their fanatic orders. The worst ban - girls could no longer go to school.
"In January 2008 when I was just 11 years old, I said goodbye to my classmates, not knowing when — if ever — I would see them again," Malala wrote in her memoir.
The next few years Malala spent speaking out publicly on behalf of girls and their right to go to school. Her brave rhetoric made her a target for the terrorists.
"In October 2012, on my way home from school, a masked gunman boarded my school bus and asked, 'Who is Malala?' He shot me on the left side of my head. I woke up 10 days later in a hospital in Birmingham, England. The doctors and nurses told me about the attack and that people around the world were praying for my recovery," Malala recalls.
After many months of surgeries and rehabilitation, Malala joined her family in their new home in the UK. By then everyone in the world knew her name and miraculous survival.
It was then that Malala knew she had a choice. She could either go on living a quiet life in the UK or she could make the most of this new life and try to make a difference.
"I was determined to continue my fight until every girl could go to school. With my father, who has always been my ally and inspiration, I established the Malala Fund, a charity dedicated to giving every girl an opportunity to achieve a future she chooses. In recognition of our work, I received the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2014 and became the youngest-ever Nobel laureate," Malala said.
The Right to Learn
Malala has studied philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford. She travels to many countries to meet girls fighting poverty, wars, child marriage and gender discrimination to go to school.
Just in Pakistan there are some 12 million girls out of school, with only 13% of girls reaching grade nine. Hence, activists like Malala aim to raise awareness regarding this issue.
For years now her fund has been operating in many different countries so that the stories of girls can be heard around the world. It aims to ensure all girls receive 12 years of free, safe, quality education.
The Malala Fund was established in 2012 to expand girls’ access to quality and gender-responsive education and ensure safe learning environments, especially in countries affected by conflict and disaster.
The fund advocates at local, national and international levels for resources and policy changes needed to give all girls a secondary education.
Pakistan initially committed $10 million to the Fund, and since 2014 the CJ Group has been another major contributor to the Fund, along with other supporters.
CJ Group is a South Korean conglomerate with two philanthropic organizations, CJ Welfare Foundation and CJ Cultural Foundation. CJ Welfare Foundation aims to foster quality educational opportunities and help children build on their dreams, while CJ Cultural Foundation supports young talented artists and creators in the fields of music, screenplay, and performing arts.
The fund has been working throughout Pakistan, in major cities like Karachi and Lahore and in rural areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh provinces to increase access to 12 years of quality education for girls.
Despite the fact that there is a political will to improve Pakistan’s schools, the government spends only half of what it should — 6% of total GDP on education.
Hence, there is a dire need for better resourcing education, to improve school infrastructure in rural regions and reach more girls with digital curricula.
Gender Equality - Prosperous Nation
During her recent visit to Pakistan, Malala explained that the fund is currently working with the federal and provincial governments to ensure that some 13,000 government girls’ high schools have science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) teachers and a state-of-the-art environment.
The activist believes that investing in education will help in resolving two of Pakistan’s biggest problems, i.e. economic challenges and climate-related disasters.
"If you look at all the research on climate change it tells you that you have to invest in gender equality, you have to invest in girls education — you have to address these problems, it helps us create more climate resilient economies, so I hope that going forward we will ensure that we are preparing ourselves against such calamities," she said.
Furthermore Malala said that in order to see a positive change in Pakistan; in terms of its policies and social norms all stakeholders need to be taken on board.
"You have to be able to talk to civil society, you have to talk to the experts, to the educators, to people who are doing research work but also you have to be open and able to work with the government as well," she said.
Malala emphasized the need to prioritize arts and music in schools as formal subjects and to bring stories of women on screens so their fundamental right to education is normalized.
Defining what education in Pakistan should be like, the activist expressed that it should be giving more choices to children to learn about all areas, and then decide for themselves what they want.
"It is making sure that we prioritize all of these subjects equally. Artists, musicians, painters, and chefs complete a society; they’re needed. I do believe that we need to really broaden the definition of education in Pakistan. There’s a lot that needs to be added," Malala said during a meeting.
Earlier, the activist paid a visit to the flood hit areas of Pakistan and expressed her concern that so many children were out of school because of the calamity. Her fund allocated $ 700,000 toward relief activities.
20 December 2022, 18:05
"The scale of the destruction is astounding and the psychosocial and economic impact on the lives of people, especially women and girls cannot be overstated. Millions of Pakistanis are suffering the consequences of climate inaction. World leaders must step up, accelerate their response plans and mobilize funds needed to help Pakistan rebuild and support impacted populations," Malala said.
During her recent visit she also met with players of the Pakistan women's cricket team and earlier last week, she was a speaker on a panel at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), which was organized in collaboration with Oxford Pakistan titled 'Building Higher Education Institutions for the 21st Century'.
#UPDATE: Nobel Laureate #MalalaYousafzai meets the Pakistani Women’s Cricket Team in Lahore. The young education activist boosts the team’s morale by telling them to accept challenges and work harder.
— Arab News Pakistan (@arabnewspk) December 16, 2022
-https://t.co/eGzOWnX6jC pic.twitter.com/ZZkkdcI5Db
Panelists included Yousafzai, Professor Stephen Blyth, Principal of Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford, Dr Nick Brown, Principal of Linarc College at Oxford, and Professor Faisal Bari, Dean of the LUMS School of Education.
"The future for girls in Pakistan relies on the quality of education they receive. Initiatives by organizations like @oxfordpakistan will ensure girls receive the education that they rightly deserve," she stated during the panel.
*banned in Russia
*under UN sanctions
The views ans opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Sputnik.
