MARIEFRED: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai said yesterday that she is giving her entire winnings from a children’s rights award to help rebuild schools in war-ravaged Gaza.
The UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, which has launched a massive $1.6bn appeal for aid for Gaza, said she would be donating all $50,000 of her World’s Children’s Prize.
The 17-year-old Pakistani children’s rights activist won the World Children’s Prize in Stockholm on Tuesday.
“This money will totally go to the rebuilding of schools for children in Gaza, so I think it will definitely help those children to continue their education, to get quality education,” the 17-year-old Pakistani told a press conference in Sweden at the awards ceremony.
“We already know how children have suffered in Gaza from conflicts and war, so those children need our support right now, because they are going through many difficult situations.” The money will be donated via UNRWA to help rebuild 65 schools in the Gaza Strip.
Several UNRWA schools were damaged during the 50-day conflict in July and August between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, and nearly 2,200 Palestinians were killed, almost a quarter of them children. On the Israeli side, 73 people were killed, including one child.
UNRWA’s director Pierre Krahenbuhl said he was “deeply touched” by Malala’s decision to donate her prize money to the agency.
“Recognition by you, a Nobel laureate... will lift the spirits of a quarter of a million UNRWA students in Gaza and boost the morale of our more than 9,000 teaching staff there,” he said.
Malala, who survived being shot in the head by the Taliban in 2012, was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize earlier in October, alongside India’s 60-year-old Kailash Satyarthi for their championing of children’s rights.
Earlier this month, Malala also received the US Liberty Medal and pledged her $100,000 award to education in her homeland Pakistan.
Agencies
