Activist and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai announced Wednesday she will donate $50,000 to rebuild a school in Gaza that was damaged over the summer during recent fighting between Israel and Palestine.
The money, which will go toward the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, represents the full amount Yousafzai received from her World’s Children’s Prize award.
“This funding will help rebuild the 65 schools damaged during the recent conflict,” Yousafzai said in Stockholm while receiving the prize. “Innocent Palestinian children have suffered terribly and for too long. We must all work to ensure Palestinian boys and girls, and all children everywhere, receive a quality education in a safe environment. Because without education, there will never be peace.”
The UNRWA condemned the Israeli army over the summer for its attacks that hit schools in Gaza, injuring and killing Palestinian children. UNRWA spokesperson Christopher Gunness told Andrea Mitchell in July that the organization had unsuccessfully notified the Israeli army of the exact position of several of the schools that were hit.
Yousafzai is the first person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and the World’s Children’s Prize in the same year.
Traci Lee