KARACHI: Pakistani Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai spent time at a government college in Karachi on Tuesday, a senior education official in the city said, ahead of a visit tomorrow, Wednesday, to areas in Pakistan devastated by floods that have left over 1,700 people dead and 33 million scrambling to survive.
Malala is returning to Pakistan on the 10th anniversary of being shot in her hometown of Swat by a Taliban gunman for her outspoken advocacy for girls’ education. She has since won the Nobel Peace Prize and co-founded the Malala Fund. She has lived in the United Kingdom since the attempt on her life.
“Malala visited Government Elementary College of Education Azizabad,” Professor Dr. Khalid M. Iraqi, vice-chancellor of Karachi University with which the college is affiliated, told Arab News. “She spent almost an hour there and discussed with us the promotion of education in the country, especially the training of teachers.”
The college has been adopted by Durbeen, a non-profit organization that aims to staff public schools in Pakistan with professional teachers.
In an email response to Arab News, a Malala fund spokesperson said Malala and Ziauddin Yousafzai, her father, were in Pakistan to help keep international attention focused on the impact of recent floods and reinforce the need for critical humanitarian aid.
“The trip is an extension of Malala Fund’s flood relief efforts,” the statement said, adding that the Fund had supported an emergency grant to support relief efforts and the well-being of girls and young women in Pakistan.
“Malala has also joined wider calls for emergency aid and called on world leaders to provide funds to protect livelihoods in impacted regions. She supported an appeal led by the Disasters Relief Committee, a group of 15 UK charities, which helped raise over £30 million for flood relief.”
Yousafzai arrived in Karachi early on Tuesday morning, a Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority spokesperson said. The schedule and duration of her visit have not been shared with media.
In 2009 at age 12, Malala blogged under a pen name for the BBC about living under the rule of the Pakistani Taliban. In 2012 she survived being shot in the head by a Taliban gunman. In 2014, she became the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate at age 17. In 2018 she launched Assembly, a digital publication for girls and young women available on Apple News. She graduated from Oxford University in June 2021.
