Last July 12, instead of throwing a party for herself, Malala spent her first day of adulthood by opening a school for Syrian refugees.
Funded by the Malala fund, the new school is located at Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, close to the Syrian border. It can house up to 200 female students, ages 14 to 18.
During the course of their education, the girls can earn baccalaureate and vocational degrees. They can also participate in skill courses that will help them find work to generate their own incomes. The advent of this school addresses the need for women there to access their right to education, and therefore freedom to do things not limited to their marital and sexual responsibilities.
Malala calls on world leaders to help build the school she founded. “Today on my first day as an adult, on behalf of the world’s children, I demand of leaders we must invest in books instead of bullets,” she said in a speech. “Books not bullets, will pave the path toward peace and prosperity.”
The school is just a part of Malala’s notable and pacifist efforts in advocating for education and women’s rights in the Middle Eastern region. Ever since a violent instance in a school bus in Pakistan, she has brought Syrian education to the global forefront because really, just how much do leaders today care? Perhaps not as much as Malala.
[The Cut]