UN announces MALALA PLAN
FRANCE: Pakistan and UNESCO have unveiled a new plan to get all the
girls in the world into school by the end of 2015. Organizers named it
the Malala Plan -- after Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old Pakistani
activist who was shot in the head by the Taliban on October 9 for
speaking out against the fanatics and promoting education for girls and
women in her home region, the Swat Valley of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Province.
Malala's father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, attended the ceremony where the
plan was announced, along with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, at
the Paris headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
At the “Stand Up For Malala” advocacy event, Zardari announced that
$10 million would be donated to seed a fund for the UNESCO plan and said
sending girls to school was the best way to combat extremism. However,
he did not explain where the money would come from.
The Pakistani President said he was “deeply moved” to have met Malala
over the weekend, during a visit to the British hospital where she is
recovering.
“I have no doubt that our resolve to provide education to all, in
particular to the millions of schoolgirls, is the best strategy to
defeat the forces of violence,” Zardari stated.
Malala was flown to Britain on October 15 for specialist care at the
Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham after Pakistani doctors said she
needed treatment for a damaged skull and “intensive
neuro-rehabilitation.”
Earlier in the day, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who
is the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, appointed
Malala's father a UN special advisor on global education.
Brown said Ziauddin is perfect for the role of advising him in his
campaign.
“His (Ziauddin’s) unique qualities -- a teacher and headteacher as
well as a parent who has had to struggle against opposition to girls’
education and the closing of schools -- makes him ideally suited to
leading in our educational effort to get all to school,” he stated.
“Before she was shot, Malala was advocating the cause of girls’
education faced by a Taliban that had closed down and destroyed 600
schools,” the former British prime minister said.
“If the Taliban sought to vanquish her voice once and for all, they
failed.
“For today her voice and her insistent dream that children should go
to school echoes all around the world, as girl after girl, each wanting
all girls to have the right to go to school, identifies with Malala.”
Brown added, “In time, Malala herself is determined to join the
campaign for every girl's right to education, and when she has recovered
she will do so, becoming one of the leaders of that campaign.”
Malala Yousafzai is still in the hospital in Britain, recovering from
her injuries, but a young Yemeni schoolgirl read a statement she
composed at the “Stand Up For Malala” event in Paris on Monday.
Following is the text of Malala Yousafzai’s message:
“I am thankful to my nation in Pakistan and the whole world for
supporting me and the grand cause of education that I stand for.
“I am thankful also to all the nurses and doctors at the Queen
Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham for their outstanding care that helps me
get better day by day.
“People from Pakistan and all over the world prayed to God for my
life and God gifted me a second life.
“My dream is to see all children, especially girls, going to school
to be educated. I dream of a peaceful world where all human beings are
accommodating and tolerant. I wish to see equality and justice for all
men and women.
“I am on a journey to see my dreamland. It does not matter if I fall
down; I will stand again, walk and struggle hard.
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