World’s youngest Nobel Laureate, Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai has been honoured big twice in last three days. On April 10th, she was designated as a United Nations’ Messenger of Peace with a special focus on girls’ education and just yesterday, on April 12th, the Canadian government awarded her the honorary citizenship. Malala addressed the dignitaries on both the occasions.
Malala talked about the importance of girls’ education on both occasions. “I’m really honoured to be given this title of Messenger of Peace, and to me it is more responsibility, which I have already had, which I was already taking, for girls’ education – raising awareness, asking world leaders to invest more in education, And I will continue to do that,” she stressed. “But UN Messenger of Peace, this has given me even more strength and it will keep me strong and also will give me a bigger platform with which I can spread my voice for education,” she added.
If you speak out, you can help people – Malala
The youngest UN Messenger went on to say, “I will just say that believe in yourself, stay confident, stay hopeful about the future. There will be bad things happening but if we are united, if we stay together, we will be stronger, we can make our world better, we can bring change, so let’s stay positive and hopeful.”
Yesterday, Malala addressed the Canadian parliament and called on the parliamentarians to lead a global effort to prioritize education for girls and refugees.
I stand with girls, as someone who knows how it feels to have your right of education taken away and your dreams threatened. I know where I stand. If you stand with me, I ask you to seize every opportunity for girls’ education over the next year.
Malal asked Canada to bring world leaders together and raise new funding for girls to go to school. “The world needs leadership based on serving humanity – not based on how many weapons you have. Canada can take that lead,” she told.
Read: Justin Trudeau invites Malala Yousafzai to address Canadian Parliament
She also praised Canadian government for its commitment to refugees, which campaigned on a commitment to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees. “Welcome to Canada’ is more than a headline or hash-tag. It is the spirit of humanity that every single one of us would yearn for, if our family was in crisis,” she told. “I pray that you continue to open your homes and your hearts to the world’s most defenceless children and families,” she added.
