Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Malala Yousafzai, celebrated her 18th birthday on July 12. However, instead of receiving gifts, the young activist from Pakistan decided to open a school at Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. It is her gift to the less fortunate children of Syrian refugees, NBC News reported.
"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 said in the report.
She was able to set up the school through the Malala Fund, a non-profit organization she built to push her advocacy for young girls' education.
Malala's school can accept 200 girls between ages of 14 and 18. In Lebanon, there are at least 1.2 million refugees from Syria and other neighboring countries and 500,000 of these refugees are school-aged children. Of these children, only a fifth can go to school, according to a report from the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
According to the said report, a large percent of the refugees going to Lebanon are children, and providing them with proper education is an utmost priority. However, the report adds that, "despite having generously open access to its schools for a large number of refugee children, the Lebanese education system (LES) and its public schools lack both the capacity and the resources to accommodate the large increase in the number of school-aged children. This, along with a complex interrelated set of other barriers, has resulted in a large out of school population among Syrian children and youth."
Malala, who is also known as the "voice of children," was honored with a song and cake for her birthday, which moved her to tears, NBC reports.
"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," said the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 2012, Malala was shot in a school bus by the Taliban in Pakistan as she staunchly defended the rights of young girls to education.
When the Taliban overtook her town in 2009, Malala wrote about the situation and her experience for the BBC under a pseudonym. She was only 11 years old then. The following year, she was featured in the New York Times in "Class Dismissed: Malala's Story," a documentary about the Taliban shutting down her school.
Although the attack on her nearly claimed her life, Malala grew more defiant and became a symbol and inspiration for other young women everywhere. Today, the activist is living in the United Kingdom and has plans of attending Oxford University, according to Yahoo.
Malala continues to push for the rights of underprivileged girls and have, in fact, urged world leaders to cut down on spending for military weapons. and, instead, put the money in education. Her school reportedly needs $39 billion yearly to operate. "It may appear as a huge number but the reality is it is not much at all. In fact, and unfortunately, $39 billion is spent on (the) military in only eight days," she said, according to The Local.
Malala is scheduled to meet with more world leaders next week to seek funding. "My message is that in these goals secondary education would be ensured," she said. "The money to send each child to primary and secondary education for twelve years for free is already there."
