Malala Yousafzai blows out candles on her birthday cake at a school for Syrian refugee girls, built by the NGO Kayany Foundation, in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley yesterday.
AFP/London
Malala Yousafzai told world leaders they were failing Syria’s children, as the Nobel Peace Prize winner spent her 18th birthday yesterday on the Syrian border.
As she became an adult, the teenager, who was shot by militants in her native Pakistan for campaigning for girls’ rights, opened a school for more than 200 Syrian girls living in refugee camps in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.
The Malala Fund, a non-profit organisation that supports local education projects, paid for the school in the Bekaa Valley, close to the Syrian border. The Malala Yousafzai All-Girls School can welcome up to 200 girls aged 14 to 18.
“Today on my first day as an adult, on behalf of the world’s children, I demand of leaders we must invest in books instead of bullets,” Malala said in a speech.
“I am honoured to mark my 18th birthday with the brave and inspiring girls of Syria,” Yousafzai said in a statement received in London.
“I am here on behalf of the 28mn children who are kept from the classroom because of armed conflict.
“Their courage and dedication to continue their schooling in difficult conditions inspires people around the world and it is our duty to stand by them.
“On this day, I have a message for the leaders of this country, this region and the world: you are failing the Syrian people, especially Syria’s children. This is a heartbreaking tragedy — the world’s worst refugee crisis in decades.”
“I decided to be in Lebanon because I believe that the voices of the Syrian refugees need to be heard and they have been ignored for so long,” Malala told Reuters in a schoolroom decorated with drawings of butterflies.
Lebanon is home to 1.2mn of the 4mn refugees that have fled Syria’s war to neighbouring countries. There are about 500,000 Syrian school-age children in Lebanon, but only a fifth are in formal education.
Lebanon, which allows informal settlements on land rented by refugees, says it can no longer cope with the influx from Syria’s four-year conflict. One in four living in Lebanon is a refugee.
The UN says the number of Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries is expected to reach 4.27mn by the end of the year.
The influx has placed strains on Lebanon, which has just 4mn citizens.
The Lebanese government has prevented the establishment of official refugee camps, giving rise to informal shanties known as “tented settlements” in rural areas.
“In Lebanon as well as in Jordan, an increasing number of refugees are being turned back at the border,” Malala said. “This is inhuman and this is shameful.”
Her father Ziauddin said he was proud she was carrying on her activism into adulthood.
“This is the mission we have taken for the last 8-9 years. A small moment for the education of girls in Swat Valley: it is spreading now all over the world,” he said.
Malala was feted with songs and a birthday cake. Moved to tears by the girls, she was modest when asked for advice.
“They are amazing, I don’t think they need any message, I don’t think they need any other advice because they know that education is very important for them.”
Malala was flown to Britain for treatment after the Pakistani Taliban tried to kill her in October 2012, and now lives permanently in Britain with her family.
