President Asif Ali Zardari Monday announced $10 million for a global war chest to educate all girls by 2015 set up in the name of Malala Yousufzai, the teen education activist shot and injured by the Taliban for campaigning for girls’ education.
The “Malala Fund for Girls’ Right to Education” aims at raising billions of dollars to ensure that all girls go to school by 2015 in line with United Nations Millennium goals.
Pakistan’s Education Minister Waqas Akram signed the agreement with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation head Irina Bokova. “A young determined daughter of my country was attacked by the forces of darkness,” Zardari told the high-profile “Stand Up For Malala” event at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. “We are facing two forces in the country; Malala represents the forces of peace and we are fighting with the forces of darkness, hatred and violence,” he said.
The ceremony drew French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, former British premier Gordon Brown, the UN special envoy for Global Education, and the former presidents of Finland and Chile. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the EU’s top diplomat Catherine Ashton sent special videotaped messages of support.
Fifteen-year-old Malala is recovering in a British hospital after being attacked on her school bus on October 9 and will join the campaign when she is better.
Malala’s father, Ziauddin Yousufzai, has been appointed to help in what Brown has dubbed a new ‘Malala Plan’ to get all girls into school around the world by the end of 2015. Zardari slammed Islamic fundamentalists for giving the religion a bad name. “The first word of the Holy Quran is ‘Iqra’ which is read,” he said, attacking the “fringe minority of darkness, of hatred, of conflict.” “What extremists fear is a girl with a book in her hand,” he said.
Zardari expressed the resolve to make Pakistan a fully progressive‚ democratic and educated country, adding that the country was committed to promoting girl’s education. He said the country’s education system was derailed during the dictatorial rule but the present democratic government was determined to ensure education for all. The president sought support of the international community to ensure that every girl in Pakistan received quality education and contributed towards a progressive Pakistan.
He said like democracy in Pakistan‚ “we need global support for education in Pakistan”. Zardari said Pakistan was a resilient and determined nation and needed support of the international community for helping every girl go to school.
The president said the UN system had a crucial and central role to play in overcoming educational challenges. He said Pakistan would continue to uphold high ideals of the UN of education for all. The UN estimates that 61 million children do not go to school and girls account for two-thirds of that number. In an attack that shocked the world, Malala was shot in the head as punishment for the “crime” of campaigning for girls’ rights to go to school. Gordon Brown said the initiative, which he hoped would attract “billions of dollars of public subscriptions”, also aimed at stopping social evils such as child marriage and violence against girls.
Pak, UN launch global ‘Malala’ war chest for girls’ education
