Web Desk
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai has arrived in Pakistan to visit the flood-affected regions of the country.
Malala and her parents reached Karachi on Tuesday by Qatar Airways’ flight 604 and were taken to her residence under tight security, according to media reports.
The peace prize winner is set to visit flood-affected areas and meet victims after inundation wreaked havoc across Pakistan.
In 2012, the now 24-year-old survived being shot in the head by a Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) gunman after she was targeted for her campaign against militants’ efforts to deny women education. She subsequently became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for her education advocacy.
This is her second visit to Pakistan after she moved to London following the attack on her.
The fight against climate change is also a fight for the right to education of girls, millions of whom lose access to schools due to climate-related events, believes Malala.
“Due to climate-related events, millions of girls lose their access to schools. Events like droughts and floods impact schools directly, displacements are caused due to some of these events,” Yousafzai said in an interview .
“Because of that, girls are impacted the most: they are the first ones to drop out of schools and the last ones to return.”
During the demonstration, Yousafzai recounted a story of how her own education was interrupted by climate change as her school and many others in the locality were flooded.
Yousafzai, now 25, was attacked by TTP militants for her role in advocating for girls’ education in the region, which faced militancy and a restriction on women’s education over a decade ago.
In Dec. 2014, she shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Indian child rights activist Kailash Sathyarthi, making her the youngest-ever laureate.
A combination of torrential rains – 10 times heavier than usual – and apocalyptic floods have killed nearly 1,700 people across Pakistan since mid-June, aside from inundating a third of the country.
The colossal devastation will also cost $30 billion to fix, according to government estimates.
The drenching monsoon, combined with massive floods, has damaged approximately 45% of the country’s cropland, posing a serious threat to food security.
Soon after her arrival in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai visited a school in the southern port city of Karachi , stressing the need for improvement in the quality of education, particularly for girls.
She visited an elementary school in the Central District of Karachi and remained there for an hour.
She will visit the flood-wrecked Dadu district of southern Sindh province and meet the victims on Wednesday.
Her visit, according to Yousafzai’s non-profit organization, Malala Fund, “aims to help keep international attention focused on the impact of floods in Pakistan and reinforce the need for critical humanitarian aid.”
