Visiting her native Pakistan after a four-year absence, Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai arrived on Tuesday to meet flood victims and visit areas affected by catastrophic monsoon flooding.
Her non-profit organization, the Malala Fund, stated in a statement that her visit seeks to assist keep international attention focused on the impact of floods in Pakistan and stress the need for urgent humanitarian aid. According to the most recent estimates, the disastrous floods have caused roughly eight million people to flee their homes and killed 1,700 people. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) had previously received an emergency relief grant from the Malala Fund to help with flood relief efforts and defend the well-being of girls and young women in Pakistan.
A statement on the fund’s website read, with this award, IRC will give psychosocial assistance to girls in Balochistan by developing safe spaces that teach life skills training and provide support for managing menstruation and reproductive health. The IRC will offer emergency education services for girls who were displaced or whose schools had been damaged or shut down, it was further said. To enable girls to resume their studies, the statement stated that the IRC would also repair and renovate 10 damaged government school buildings for girls. Yousafzai was also quoted as saying that her heart hurts seeing the carnage in Pakistan and the lives of millions of people destroyed overnight. She implores the international community to take action right away on policies to stop climate change and create climate-finance systems in addition to providing substantial aid and support.
Since surviving a Taliban attack in Swat in 2012, when she had to leave for medical care in the UK, Yousafzai has made two trips to Pakistan. Two days after the attack’s tenth anniversary, she arrived in Karachi. Yousafzai’s most recent trip to Pakistan was in March 2018. Additionally, Yousafzai’s Malala Fund’s goals are in line with the International Day of the Girl Child, which is held annually on October 11 to recognize girls’ rights and the difficulties they confront. Her trip to Pakistan also happens to fall on this day.
Yousafzai, who is from the Swat region, has resided in the UK since October 2012. She was transported in critical condition from Pakistan to a hospital in Birmingham after being shot in the head during a targeted attack by the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Swat.
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After finishing an exam, she and the other girls were traveling home in a school vehicle when the TTP members started shooting at them. In the incident, two additional females also suffered gunshot wounds. Both nationally and internationally, there was strong opposition to the attack on the schoolgirls. Yousafzai was forced to remain in the UK due to security concerns when the TTP disowned her in response to the criticism.
Yousafzai proclaimed the beginning of a movement to support girls’ education when she recovered. Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi of India won the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2014 for putting their lives in danger to fight for children’s rights. The greatest distinction awarded by the UN head on a world citizen, Yousafzai was chosen by Antonio Guterres in April 2017 to be a UN envoy of peace.
