LYRICS
From VOA Learning English,
this is the Education Report.
Malala Yousafzai spoke to hundreds of young people
at the United Nations On July 12th.
It was her first public speech since last October
when the schoolgirl was shot in the head
by Taliban gunmen in Pakistan.
The U.N. speech continued her campaign to educate children.
"The terrorists thought they would change my aims
and stop my ambitions,
but nothing changed in my life except this:
weakness, fear and hopelessness died.
Strength, power and courage was born."
On the day she spoke,
two groups announced that 57 million children
around the world are not going to school.
The two are "Save the Children" and UNESCO
- The United Nations Educational Scientific
and Cultural Organization.
A little more than half of those
who are not going to school are girls.
In September of 2012,
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced a program
to get every boy and girl into school by 2015.
Malala Yousafzai believes the goal is possible.
"Let's pick up our books and our pens,
they are our most powerful weapons.
One child, one teacher, one book
and one pen can change the world."
Shiza Shahid is the executive director of
a new program called the Malala Fund.
She says the 16-year-old is a true spokes person
and warrior for girls rights.
The Malala Fund was created to support the voices
calling for girls' education.
The actress Angelina Jolie has donated $250,000 to the fund.
A group called Women in the World donated $150,000.
The first children served by the fund are 40 girls
in Malala's hometown in the Swat Valley in Pakistan.
These girls aged 5 to 12 had been working.
Shiza Shahid says the girls have stoped working
and are going to school.
Malala Yousafzai is now going to school in England,
but she talks to the girls in Swat Valley
by the computer software program Skype.
Shiza Shahid is also from Pakistan.
She says the organizers of the Malala Fund are deciding
what steps they can take to really change a girls' life.
She says girls everywhere can help.
Girls are also urged to tell their own stories online
at malalafund.org.
And that's the Education Report from Learning English,
I'm Karen Leggett.