Welcome to Week THREE of RI’s Month of Basic Education & Literacy.
Recently in Taipei, Taiwan, Yin Khvat, a senior producer and host of the country's weekly current affairs program, Taiwan Talks, sat with a leading advocate for girls’ education and one of the youngest Nobel Peace laureates, Taliban survivor and Oxford graduate Malala Yousafzai on a number of topics especially educating the girl child in her native Pakistan:
“We actually bought a piece of land in my parents’ village, Shangla, in the north. I had this dream. I said, “This is the place where my mother could not complete her education. This is a place where we still do not have a high school for girls.” And everybody said, “It’s up in the mountains and it’s hard to construct a school there.” I thought, if we can make it happen there, we have no excuse not to do it anywhere else in the country. We made this amazing state-of-the-art school and started enrolling girls. Last year, I got an opportunity to visit and meet the first graduating class. These girls were incredible. They are so ambitious and bold. They were telling me about their dreams, that they want to be teachers, engineers, and doctors. They want to serve their community. They were painting and playing chess and sports like cricket. They also had a mental health office. Like other students, these girls are under a lot of pressure, and they also have real challenges at home, from safety and security to forced marriages. Just recently, a 14-year-old girl was forced into a marriage. The school administration and local police saved that girl. She remains in school. We’ve saved the lives of so many girls and are helping them continue their education. They are role models to that community and have changed the future for women and girls there.”
What kind of tips can you offer Rotary members if they want to take practical steps to help women’s equity?
“First, I want to tell Rotarians that it’s not the first time I’m hearing about them. In Swat Valley where I grew up, my father was a Rotary member. He was doing a lot of community work, helping clean the river, doing cultural events, and helping kids get into school. So for me, this is full circle. All your Rotary work reaches so many different parts of the world that you can’t even imagine. I want people to understand the power that it has. Each individual act matters. Never feel alone when you are getting started.” (Rotary Magazine, September 2026).
In Rotary,
Olabisi Gwamna, PhD
Editor, Foundation Minute.