 |
Malala Yousafzai |
Events in Pakistan have the BRAC global family talking – and around the world, from Dhaka to New York, we’re steadfast in our support for Malala Yousafzai, age 14, now in critical condition after being shot by the Taliban for her courageous defense of human rights – the right of a girl to an education, especially.
Currently in New York, dignitaries at the United Nations are celebrating today’s inaugural
International Day of the Girl, with BRAC represented there.
In the New York Times, op-ed columnist Syed Fazl-e-Haider declares unequivocally: “
Malala Has Won.”
Read the words of one Afghan mother: “We see Shabnam and hope our daughters grow up to be like her.”
These are not isolated cases.
BRAC has educated over 240,000 children in our “second chance” schools for children from disadvantaged backgrounds in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Most classrooms are over 80 female.
Today, over 19,000 girls are going to 615 BRAC schools in Afghanistan, even in very conservative areas.
So yes, Malala is winning. Progress is happening quietly, under the radar, at the community level – but on a massive scale.
Our first-hand experience in Bangladesh shows what girls education can do for a poor country. That’s the reason BRAC is part of global movements like
Half the Sky and
Girls Not Brides, and why we’re the world’s No. 1 implementer of
the Girl Effect.
We stand together for Malala and all those like her.