Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai is spending her 19th birthday in Kenya in the world’s largest refugee camp to draw attention to the global refugee crisis, especially as the Dadaab camp faces pressure to close.
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Last year she had a Skype call with girls in the Dadaab camp, in the lead up to visiting them this year.
The possibility that Dadaab camp in eastern Kenya, near the border with Somalia, will be closed brings yet more uncertainty to the refugees.
Shahbaz Sharif said Malala Yousafzai has foiled conspiracies to push the nation into darkness of ignorance through her courage and determination.
The teenage activist has long campaigned for children to be given an education after she was shot in the head in Pakistan by the Taliban when she was 15. She told the story of how she was shot in 2012 as a student in Pakistan for speaking out for girls’ education in a highly conservative culture.
“We’ll make sure that they continue to have access to education”.
With the hashtag #yesallgirls Malala has dedicated her 19th birthday to meet girls from the world over.
Many refugees have lived most if not all of their lives in Dadaab, which has been open for 25 years.
She won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize victor for courage in promoting girls’ education.
Al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaida, has vowed to continue attacking Kenya. The Kenyan government has alleged that some of these attacks originated in the Dadaab refugee complex.
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The UN dubbed the event as Malala Day and announced to observe it every year to raise awareness on the right to education, especially of girls. The young activist celebrated her birthday previous year by starting a girls’ school for Syrian refugees in Lebanon. AP material published by LongIsland.com, is done so with explicit permission. This includes the preparation of derivative works of, or the incorporation of such content into other works. Please see our terms of service for more information.
