#BooksnotBullets
Hey guys, happy Friday!
So, today I decided I would talk about a topic that I’ve been pretty passionate about for some time. And that’s: education. Not just education, but equal educational opportunities for all, despite race, gender, or disabilities.
And this week, Malala Yousafzai (who if you didn’t know, is the brave girl from Swat, Pakistan who got shot in the head by the Taliban on her way to the school her father founded for girls and who then became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner at 15 years old) is celebrating her 18th birthday in a new way. The young activist called for worldwide action at the Oslo Summit on Education for Development to stand up to global leaders and insist they spend on education, rather than the military. According to Yousafzai, “if the whole world stopped spending money on the military for just 8 days, we could have the $39 billion still needed to provide 12 years of free, quality education to every child on the planet.”
Just think about that for a second. Eight days, for 12 years. If that’s not something worth fighting for, I don’t know what is.
I actually recently started reading Malala’s own book, ‘I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban’ co-written with Christina Lamb and it’s honestly a fantastic read. Though the writing itself is rather succinct, it’s the brevity of the sentences and the clear emotion and power conveyed that makes the book a must-read. Her story itself, of survival and courage and standing up for your beliefs, moved me deeply and she’s an inspiration not just to teens looking to make a difference and bring change to our society, but to world leaders, who should look to her as an example and learn from her strength and bravery.
If a young girl, not yet a teen, is fighting for her life and accepting exile from her beloved country to fight for a cause, I think it’s worth stopping and listening.
Don’t you?
{If you too want to show your support for the Malala Fund and her movement, post a picture on social media of your favourite book, with the hashtag: #booksnotbullets. The more voices that join in the fight, the bigger the chance for change.}
Until tomorrow friends,
Regina L.