Malala Yousafzai Contribution To Education

Whenever any young girl talks about the activist for female education then the first name which comes in a mind is Malala Yousafzai. She was born on 12th of July, 1997 in Mingora City that falls under the Swat district of Pakistan. She is known for the human rights advocacy, women and child education which she made mandatory in her native hometown. 

Soon she became the well-known citizen of Pakistan. Where she has become the role model for every girl in the world for education now, her role models were Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Benazir Bhutto and got inspiration from her father ideology. I like to add a little bit information about a place Mingora, this city is the third-largest city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 26th largest in Pakistan. Malala hometown was quite famous for summer vacation and one of the attractive tourist spot because of Swat Valley, but things got to change when the Taliban tried to take control over it. 

When the swat school came into the breaking news being attacked by the Taliban then Malala gave a speech in Peshawar, Pakistan, in the year 2008. She talked on the topic, “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?’’ At the age of 11-12, she wrote a blog for BBC Urdu being representing her anonymously and knitted her life in words at the time of Pakistani Taliban occupation of Swat or Second Battle of Swat but unfortunately, her school shut it down on the same day. She described the situations that how she is being forced to stay at home by using the name “Gul Makai”. The best part is that Malala rose by giving the interviews on television, and in print media. This made her stronger with the time she kept on implementing the ways and the ideas that how each girl can afford school fees and how her study may continue in Pakistan.

In the year 2009, it became difficult for her as she counted in internally displaced person (IDP) and forced to leave her home during that tough phase while seeking safety hundreds of mile away. After many days on her return, Malala again had thought of spreading a message using social media and continued her public campaign for her right to go to school to continue her study. He voice grew louder day by day and within those 3 years, she and her father got huge recognition and fame in Pakistan for their continued determination and dedication that how they were so focused in giving the free access to quality education for girls. For such amazing work, she nominated for the International Children Peace Prize in the year 2011 and awarded Pakistan National Youth Peace Prize. Where there was a hope born in the hearts of little girl there not every person supporting her and her beauty of seeing the educated girl in Pakistan.

On October 9, 2012, when Malala was returning to her home from a bus with her friends and was talking about school activity than two men from Taliban stopped the bus and asked the girl by name Malala. When they recognized her the one with a beard fired three shots at her in which one shot entered and exited from her head and wedged in her shoulder. She was wounded where she was airlifted to a Pakistani Military hospital in Peshawar, while she was not getting a recovery and her health condition was also not good so it was decided after four days she was shifted to intensive care unit in Birmingham, England. After several treatments and surgical operations, Malala was able to attend the school in Birmingham. When she was recovered with the massive improvement she started getting fame worldwide. In the year 2013, at her 16th birthday, Malala visited New York and addresses at the United Nations in front of 500 people. 

After few months with all such skills and dedication, she published her first book, her autobiography, with the Cover Name “I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up For Education and was shot by a Taliban. Later in the same year, Malala was awarded the prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. She gained confidence and started travelling to create awareness regarding the importance of education for girls. She travelled to Jordan to meet and had a word with Syrian students, Kenya to understand the mindset of young female students regarding education and finally, on her 17th birthday she reached to Northern Nigeria to have some sort of understanding about the life of girls living there, she spoke out in support of those girls who faced wrong and abusive activities and were kidnapped a year ago by Boko Haram, an active terrorist group similar to a Taliban.

In the Year 2014, an Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi for promoting the children rights along with Malala got a Nobel Prize in Oslo and both emerged as a winner. Imagine 17 years old girl counted for such great work. She addressed those children in her statement by saying the award is not for me, but for those who are forgotten and who want education, it is for those children who dare to continue their study, for those who want peace and the children who can’t speak but they are looking for a ray of hope. In somewhere Malala has become a pillar for uneducated girls, frightened girls, girls restricted for schools, and girls from communities who stop girls to educate.

To support the girls globally an international, non-profit organization with the name “Malala Fund” came into existence in the year 2013 that fights for girl education. She is a co-founder of this NGO which is located in Washington, D.C., United States. The purpose of this fund is to invest in activities which are related to education activities and to advocate at local, national and international level i.e. meet with state head and the high-level officials people and ask them to increase their investment for education of girls. Through digitally it motivates shares thoughts, ideas and things which are in favour of girl education. 

As per the information, I would love to share that Malala fund has tremendously built 40,000 schools. It is formed for providing the long term benefits, where the purpose is to provide free education to the girl till 12 years of her age with quality and safety.

Malala Fund works in the regions where the literacy ratio of girls is low or where most girls just pass primary education and not allowed for secondary education. The prior countries for which Malala fund works are Brazil, India, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Nigeria and Turkey.

It is really sad to know that more than 130 million girls are out of school because of the following reasons like

Child Labour: Mother force their daughter to do labour work as they are not so educated but it can be stopped by start sending the girls for secondary education where they get high wages and contribute in economic growth.

Early Marriage: This stops the girl from educating and realizing their strength, as they are not in such a mental stage to decide well for them. Only 12 years of education contribute to a 64% drop in child marriage.

Conflict: Due to an unhealthy situation or at the time of the war zone a sudden drop in the education of girls can be seen. In the war or violence zone, 90% of girls are not allowed to continue secondary education.

Cost: Sometimes the high cost of education becomes a barrier for a girl. Those who are below the poverty line are helpless to send their daughter to continue the study.

Gender Bias: Orthodox thoughts, cultural norms and misconceptions all are responsible for not allowing the girl to continue to study.

Health: Girls which are uneducated they get susceptible to early pregnancy, health issues and sexually transmitted diseases. If the girls would attain an education bar till 12 years of starting age then the frequency of early births and child deaths would really drop.

Natural Disasters: Earthquake, Land sliding, cyclone result in damages and due to this girl’s education stops. Due to limited resources one family all the facilities even those which are for the betterment of life.

Poor Quality: Due to poor infrastructure, unavailability of higher grade in school parents does not allow their daughter to continue education for a long time. Even girls do not have any hope in such a scenario where they satisfy themselves regarding higher education. They are limited to education what they have learnt many years ago.

Many Big companies contacted Malala Yousafzai for her contribution in education and such companies are listed on the official website of Malala Foundation are Apple Inc., Bill & Melinda, Gates Foundation, Starbucks Foundation, etc. From the day of foundation existence in the past seven years, it has received millions of donations for the welfare of educating girls more across the globe. Even the Nobel Prize laureate, Malala herself donated over 1 million US dollar for academic projects globally. The most influenced person from Malala fund was the president of Pakistan i.e. Asif Ali Zardari announced a 10 million US dollar to make all girls educated by the year 2015. From the Malala Fund, she opened a girl’s school in Lebanon for refugees from the Syrian Civil War. In the same year, she released her documentary “He Named Me Malala”

The Books that are written by Malala are

I am Malala Year 2013

Malala’s Magic Pencil Year 2017

We Are Displaced Year 2019

Today Malala has become the voice of those 60 million girls who are deprived of education. An inspiration, mentor and enthusiastic personality for every young girl who seeks education and wants to do something in her life. Her message to every girl globally is to remain strong no one can grate your soul until and unless you give up and always believe in yourself that you are born to live a life that you wanted.