Oct 11(ABC): Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai told the female flood victims they are brave as she listened to their plight due to the climate-induced calamity.
The 25-year-old girls’ education activist visited the flood-hit Chandan area of Juhi in Dadu district on Wednesday where she interacted with the flood affectees and inspected the tent city.
The female victims welcomed the Nobel Prize winner to the camp where she encouraged them.
“You all are facing a difficult time,” she told the victims.
The education activist is accompanied by Sindh Health Minister Azra Fazal Pechuho, Education Minister Sardar Shah and singer-turned-activist Shehzad Roy.
The education minister briefed Malala regarding the education and schools being affected by the catastrophe.
“About 2 million children studying in 12,000 schools have been affected by the floods,” he informed. Shah also said that there are still many areas where water is accumulated.
The minister added that a further survey will be carried out to determine the damage done to the schools after the water is drained out.
The Nobel laureate expressed concern over the damage caused to the schools and the loss of education for children.
During the visit, Malala was also briefed by Dadu DC Murtaza Shah on the water at the MNV embankment.
Pakistan witnessed more than usual monsoon showers this season that sparked countrywide flooding and left a third of the nation underwater, causing damage to standing crops and roads and rail tracks in Sindh and Balochistan.
The Nobel laureate had arrived in Karachi a day earlier and is expected to extend assistance from the Malala Fund for flood relief.
This is the second time that the 2014 Nobel peace prize winner has visited Pakistan.
In October 2012, Yousafzai — then 15 years old — was shot in the head at point-blank range by Taliban gunmen as she was returning from her school in Swat valley.
