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Malala to spend Nobel prize money on education in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai said she would spend her share of the $1.1 million prize money on projects for education in Pakistan.

In an interview with the Pakistan state-run TV along with her father and mother in the United Kingdom, Malala Yousafzai said focus should be on education of girls and that she had gained enough experience to continue to advocate and urge people to invest in education.

“We have to work together as 57 million children are still out of school in Pakistan. My dream is that every Pakistani child should get good quality education,” she added.Malala Yousafzai said one of her projects from the prize money would be to set up a high quality school in Pakistan.

“When I started working for education, my first project was a school for working children in Swat,” she said while telling about Malala Fund set up by herself. The aim of Malala Fund was that children in Pakistan get education facilities, she added.

Her Malala Fund was also supporting 25 orphan kids for lifetime in a project run by an organization in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.Malala emphasized that her goal is to convince everybody to invest in education and in her meetings with global leaders like President Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth, she persuaded them to invest and focus on education.

To a question, she said she had always told reality about the situation in Swat and many times pointed out that Taliban were responsible for stopping girls from going to school.To a question about her stay in United Kingdom, Malala said, “its true that I live abroad but my heart and mind are in Pakistan.”

Malala said her soul was in Swat and she was hopeful to go back to Pakistan and join politics.A resolution has been introduced at the US Senate to recognize Nobel laureates Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi as “symbols of peace” in acknowledgement of their efforts to end the financial exploitation of children and to ensure the right of all children to education.

Introduced by Senator Tom Harkin, the resolution says Malala has promoted education for girls in Pakistan since she was 11 years old and is an advocate for worldwide access to education, and Satyarthi has personally rescued more than 82,000 children from the worst forms of child labour.

According to the resolution, which has been sent to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for necessary action, Satyarthi, 60, has endured threats to his life as a result of such rescue efforts; and the militants attempted to kill Malala on October 9, 2012, as a result of her efforts to encourage more girls to attend school.

The Senate resolution recognizes Nobel laureates Malala and Satyarthi as symbols of peace and advocates for ending the financial exploitation of children and for the right of all children to an education.

While commending all individuals working around the world to end the scourge of child slavery and to advance education for all children, the resolution recognizes the challenges that remain in ending the financial exploitation of children and providing access to an education for all children.

Urging all governments, civil society organizations, businesses and individuals to unite in the common purpose of protecting children from losing their childhoods as well as their futures, the resolution recognizes the dedication and commitment to freedom, the rights of children, and the endurance of the human spirit demonstrated by all individuals who make sacrifices to build a more peaceful world.

Meanwhile, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai said on Thursday that she could see herself becoming prime minister of her country in about 20 years.“I want to help my country, I want my country to go forward and I’m really patriotic,” said 17-year-old Malala, the youngest Nobel laureate ever.

“That’s why I decided that I’d join politics and maybe one day people will vote for me and I get the majority, I’ll become the prime minister,” she said.Asked about her political aspirations during a press conference with Norway’s female premier Erna Solberg in Oslo, Malala added that “you can become prime minister when you’re 35, not before that, so (it’s) like in many years’ (time).”Malala said she was inspired by former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto who was assassinated in 2007.

“She is an example… giving this message that women can go forward because in some communities women are not supposed to go forward and become a prime minister,” said Malala, who now lives in Britain.

The News