[VIDEO] Nobel laureate Malala calls for global efforts to educate refugee children

All countries should join efforts to invest in the education of refugee children to ensure a bright future for them. The call was made yesterday by the Pakistan-born 2014 Nobel laureate, Malala Yousafzai, while visiting Mahama refugee camp in Kirehe District, which is home for over 49,000 Burundian refugees. The regional tour which started at Dadaab, a refugee camp for Somalis in Kenya, is part of her advocacy campaign in refugee camps in Africa under the auspices of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). She arrived in Kigali on Wednesday. While in Mahama, the 19-year-old held separate interactions with refugee children and women listening to their challenges and future ambitions. Accompanied by her father and other officials from government and aid agencies, Malala said she was impressed by the courage and ambitions the refugee girls have. She however noted that it was unfortunate some refugee children are not able to acquire quality education due to limited funds. She warned that the world was likely to lose future generation as young people, especially girls, are facing many challenges, including harsh life in refugee camps. Malala tours the camp with her father Ziauddin Yousafzai (behind), refugee girls representative Kenny Lays Ndayiragije (center) and Paul Kenya, UNCHR head office in the district. / Faustin Niyigena “International donors and all countries should make education a priority and should invest in refugee children. There is no future if the new generation is not educated, their education is the key to their success and key to peace,” Malala told reporters in the camp. “All they (refugee children) need is quality education, education is the only tool that can empower them...but unfortunately in this refugee camp there are many students who cannot have access to education.” Malala said girls especially in refugee camps face many challenges such as sexual violence, poverty, stressing the need to listen to their voices and respect their rights. Refugee children present their artworks to the Minister for Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs, Seraphine Mukantabana, yesterday at the camp. Faustin Niyigena “Raising the voice for the young girls whether they are refugees or not, is very important, the international community, media, leaders need to give the importance to the voice of young girls, their voice matters, they are also individuals and human beings,” she said. Malala noted that women have been suffering a lot, which trend needs to change. In many countries, they are victims of sexual violence, poverty, they are the ones who suffer the most, so it is important that we listen to women, she said. There are over 60 million refugees of whom 22 million are not able to go to school, according to the UN. She warned there could be a generation completely lost in the future if nothing is done. Malala is a Pakistani activist for female education known mainly for her advocacy for education and for women in her native Swat Valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of northwest Pakistan, where the local Taliban banned girls from attending school. Young girls in the refugee camp surprise Malala with a birthday song on her 19th anniversary. They have her a peace basket as gift. / Faustin Niyigena She rose to international prominence in 2012, when she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman for her criticism of the Taliban and advocacy of girls’ education. Her advocacy work has since grown into an international movement. She celebrated her birthday last year by opening a girls’ school for Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The 2013, 2014 and 2015 issues of Time magazine featured Malala as one of “The 100 Most Influential People in the World”. Aged 17 at the time, she became the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. July 12 was declared “Malala Day” by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in 2013 to coincide with her birthday. Refugee girls who talked to The New Times welcomed Malala’s, hoping that their voices will be heard by many and their rights respected. “Refugee girls still face challenges related to sexual violence and poverty which force some of us into early marriage. It limits their education and ruins their future, we hope our voices are heard,” said Anne-Marie Anais, one of the refugee girls. Over 15,000 refugee children in Mahama have access to primary and secondary education while over 2700 do not have chance to go to school. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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[VIDEO] Nobel laureate Malala calls for global efforts to educate refugee children