Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani education campaigner shot by the Taliban, has donated $50,000 (nearly £31,000) towards the reconstruction of schools in Gaza, The UK Guardian reports.
The Nobel peace prize winner, speaking after receiving the World Children’s Prize for the rights of the child in Marienfred, Sweden, on Wednesday, said the money would be channelled through the United Nations relief agency UNRWA to help rebuild 65 schools in the Palestinian territory.
Malala, who now lives in the UK and has her own fund to help small-scale organisations in a number of countries, including Pakistan, told journalists that children in Gaza had suffered from conflicts and war. The money would help children get “quality education” and continue their life, knowing they were not alone and that people were supporting them, she said.
She is the first person to receive the children’s prize and the Nobel in the same year. The Sweden-based organisers of the children’s prize said millions of children around the world had voted for Malala.
The children’s prize also announced two honorary laureates. John Wood, who quit his job as a Microsoft manager, has spent 15 years working for books, school libraries, and schools for millions of children, through his Room to Read organisation, while Indira Ranamagar from Nepal has fought for 20 years for the rights of the children of convicts to education and to live outside of prisons.
In remarks published on the UNRWA website, Malala said the organisation was performing “heroic work” to serve children in Gaza.
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