KARACHI: Malala Yousafzai on Wednesday visited Dadu in Pakistan’s flood-ravaged Sindh province to review damage and meet survivors, said the chief minister’s spokesperson, as the Nobel Laureate returned to Pakistan to help keep international attention focused on the impact of recent floods and reinforce the need for critical humanitarian aid. 

Triggered by heavy monsoon rains, deluges have devastated Pakistan and left over 1,717 people dead and 33 million scrambling to survive. In Sindh alone, floods have killed 779 people and displaced 7.3 million others, who are living in roadside camps, temporary shelters and many in their villages still surrounded by several feet of water from all sides. 

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. 

“Nobel Prize Winner Malala Yousufzai visited a tent city in Chhandan area of Johi, Dadu, to meet flood victims,” Rasheed Channa, the chief minister’s spokesperson, said in a statement, adding that the provincial education minister of Sindh, Syed Sardar Ali Shah, told her that two million students had been affected by the floods in the province. 

“Malala expressed her concern over the impact [of floods] over educational institutions and children,” the spokesperson continued. 

Yousufzai remained in the camp for some time and spoke to women. 

“You are brave women,” Channa said while quoting the young Nobel Laureate. “You are dealing with difficult conditions.” 

Accompanied by her father Ziauddin Yousafzai, singer Shehzad Roy and provincial health minister Dr. Azra Pechuho, she also interacted with other survivors of floods in the area. 

Later, she also met Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah who said her visit to Dadu had further stressed the need to support people displaced by floods. 

After arriving in Pakistan, the Nobel Peace Prize winner on Tuesday spent time at a government college in Karachi where she met with staff to discuss ways to improve education, especially the training of teachers. 

In an email response to Arab News, a Malala Fund spokesperson said the global education advocate’s Pakistan trip was an extension of the Fund’s flood relief efforts, adding that it 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.” 

Malala Fund also noted on Wednesday the floods had disrupted learning for nearly 3.5 million children in Pakistan. 

“It also destroyed almost half the schools in the Sindh province — those still standing are now temporary shelters or response centres,” it said in a statement. 

The fund also informed it had committed up to $700,000 to organizations in Pakistan which was in addition to its emergency relief grant, adding that the investment included direct funding to local partners and partnerships to support flood relief. 

Yousafzai arrived in Karachi early on Tuesday morning, a Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority spokesperson said. 

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.