“We are
stronger than the enemies of education. We are stronger than fear, hatred,
violence and poverty.  They thought that bullets would silence
us, but they failed. Instead, out of that silence came thousands of voices. My
birthday wish this year is that we all raise our voices for those under
oppression, to show our own power and that courage is stronger than their
campaign of fear. The road to equality is long, but we will
succeed if we walk it together.”   Malala Yousafzai – message for Malala Day 2014

Pakistani education campaigner Malala Yousafzai has met
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan today – designated by the UN as Malala Day
– to urge more action to secure the release of more than 200 schoolgirls, held
by Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

In spite of the global #BringBackOurGirls awareness campaign and pledges of support from governments and the UN, most of
the girls abducted from their boarding school in mid April are still being
held and the Nigerian Government and President Goodluck Jonathan have been
widely criticised for their failure to resolve the situation.

Malala, who survived being shot in the head by Taliban
militants in 2012 after campaigning for girls’ education, also met with the
parents of some of the kidnapped girls.  "I
can see those girls as my sisters”, she said, “and I’m going to speak up for
them until they are released".

Soroptimists in Nigeria are continuing to draw attention to
the plight of the Chibok girls, with weekly demonstrations.

 

Malala Day – “One child,
one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.”

Last year the United Nations officially declared Malala’s
16th birthday, July 12, as Malala Day. Less than a year after Taliban militants boarded her school bus and shot her, she gave her first
public speech at UN Headquarters in New York, emphasising the importance of universal education.

Malala Day is a day to raise awareness of the threats to girls’
education around the world, highlighted so shockingly by Malala’s own story and
the case of the Chibok girls in Nigeria.   

“It is our responsibility
to raise awareness about all the girls all over the world who are at risk, who
are regularly subjected to violence when they attend school, or who don’t go to
school because they are afraid”, urged Reilly Dempsey, SI’s Head of
Programme and Advocacy, in her blog “Bringbackourgirls in Nigeria…but what then?.  “Be their global voice and
speak out for them.  Make schools safe
places so women and girls can achieve their fullest potential.”

#StrongerThan

The Malala fund are urging people to show the world that our power is Stronger Than any campaign of fear, by sharing their own message on Facebook or Twitter using the hashtag #StrongerThan.

Watch the MalalaDay video below (or on Youtube)