December 12, 2014

Malala Yousafzai and The girl effect

editor:	Ama Lorenz

It has only been five years since Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai wrote an anonymous diary about life under Taliban rule in north-west Pakistan. Now she made history and became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The honour marks Malala's determination and unwavering fight for girls' education.

At a packed ceremony in Oslo, Norway, she delivered her formal acceptance speech with the confidence and assurance that we've seen from her many times before. She dedicated the prize money to the Malala Fund and launched #TheLast campaign to see not just progress on education, but to make her generation #TheLast to see any child denied education.

250 million of adolescent girls living in poverty are also the most powerful force for a change. By investing in their economic potential through education and by delaying child marriage and teen pregnancy, issues such as HIV and AIDS can be resolved and the cycle of poverty can be broken. The video of the movement The Girl Effect shows how.