The bravest girl Malala’s 16th birthday (Videos)

Update:

Malala speech in the UN

Hello there,

Today is Malala’s 16th birthday.

Soon she’ll take to the UN floor with more than 3,500,000 of our voices behind her and tell the world about her fight for education for every girl and boy in the world. The support for her campaign has been overwhelming, and we’ve got much more to do,  but now is our time to celebrate.

It’s been a long road, but today the bravest girl we know will spend her birthday fighting for others. So let’s show her how important her strength and courage are to all of us.

The Spirit of Sisterhood

By Queen Rania of Jordon, Queen of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

This post is part of the Global Mom Relay. Every time you share this blog, $5 will go to women and girls around the world. Scroll to the bottom to find out more.

Today is Mother’s Day across the Arab world, so this baton goes out to every Arab mom, grandmother, and guardian.

They are the selfless women who love their children in ways they never knew possible and sacrifice so much for their happiness. They are the tireless women who work so hard to give their children opportunities they never had and instill in them the confidence to try new pursuits. They are the compassionate women who teach their children values so that they grow up as kind and engaged citizens.

With this baton comes a message of gratitude and respect for all that they do, every day, to nurture a healthy, happy and creative generation of children. Especially now.

Her Majesty Queen Rania visits school girls in Amman, Jordan

In the last few years, we’ve witnessed seismic shifts in the political, economic and social landscape of the Middle East and North Africa.

Through it all, Arab women did what women everywhere do best: they multi-tasked. They raised their voices and joined the call for reform; they cared for their families in testing circumstances and they opened their doors to those in need. Women helped men. Women helped women. And, as the dust settles in many countries, women are critical to the urgent process of rebuilding.

India Must Ban Child Labor

By Gordon Brown,

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; UN Special Envoy for Global Education

Pressure is mounting on the Indian Parliament to end child labour after 150,000 Indians signed an abolition petition demanding an immediate change in the child labour laws.

The petition follows the recent revelation of slave labour conditions under which young children of eight and nine were making Christmas decorations. Currently dangerous work is outlawed in India — but there is no blanket ban yet on child labour under the age of fourteen. As a result India accounts for some of the worst excesses in global child labour; overall fifteen million children worldwide work full time when they should be at school.

This week the children who escaped slave conditions have spoken of their fate and about their ambitions for the future. During their horrific ordeal they were trafficked, exploited, imprisoned and denied food and their stories underline the urgent action needed to end child labour. They would still be making tree decorations and other trinkets but for the courageous rescue carried out by Kailash Satyarthi and his co-leaders of Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) and Global March Against Child Labour (GMACL).

Their captors were slave masters who had them trafficked from Indian provinces. Often their parents were tricked into believing they were leaving to be given free education.

Their stories, recounted in a new film published on our website EducationEnvoy.org, reveal a pattern of child abuse. The first child featured on the film is eleven year old Rahim from Malman Nagariain. From the moment he boarded a train to India’s capital he became a prisoner and was eventually confined to a dark and dingy sweatshop in LNJP colony. He was forced to work 18 hours a day with only two recesses of ten minutes each for eating. He was never allowed to leave the premises and had to cook food for himself and his employer inside the sweatshop. He was often scolded and hit for being slow at work. His employer did not pay him a single rupee for his work despite being promised INR1500 per month. Now free he wants to study hard and become a soldier.

Education Without Borders

By Gordon Brown, former prime Minister of Britain

Every child has a right to an education. Yet millions of children are living in countries where that right is systematically violated as a result of armed conflict. It is time for the international community to stop this state of affairs by getting serious about its responsibility to protect education in all countries, irrespective of the barriers created by armed conflict.

Education seldom figures in media reporting from conflict zones. Yet the effects are devastating. In eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where the education system has collapsed in the face of mass displacement and ongoing violence, over 1 million children are out of school. When the surge in refugees driven from Somalia by hunger and violence arrived in camps in northern Kenya last year there was no provision made for additional education. And the conflict in Yemen has pushed tens of thousands of children out of school.