Pakistani activist, Malala Yousafzai, arrives in Trinidad

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani education activist. (Credit: rebellesociety.com)

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, Monday July 28, 2014, CMC – Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani education activist, has praised Trinidad for the stance taken on free education.

Malala who arrived here Sunday said her ultimate goal is to ensure education is free.

“I heard children’s education is free and the BSc is free. This is how it should be—100 per cent education should be free. I will be happy to meet with the children and adults.”

Malala’s visit coincides with the tenth anniversary celebrations of the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT).

She is accompanied by her parents and brothers Khan and Khushal Khan, along with chairman of The Malala Fund, Eason Jordan, will continue her activism with two speaking engagements on Wednesday and Thursday at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA).

Malala achieved international renown after she was shot by the Taliban for campaigning for education rights for girls and women.

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Pakistani activist, Malala Yousafzai, arrives in Trinidad

Pakistani teenage activist, Malala Yousafzai, to visit Trinidad and Tobago

Seventeen year-old Pakistani activist, Malala Yousafzai (Credit: UN.org)

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, Tuesday July 15, 2014, CMC – Seventeen year-old Pakistani activist, Malala Yousafzai will visit the twin island republic on July 31.

This was confirmed on Monday in a statement from the Ministry of Tertiary Education and Skills Training.

Yousafzai gained worldwide attention in 2012, when a Taliban gunman, who opposed the teenager’s advocacy for women’s rights to education, entered the school bus in which she was travelling and shot her in the head.

She survived the attack and went on to continue her advocacy work, most recently campaigning for the release of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram.

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Malala has received numerous awards for her work as an activist, including the National Youth Peace Prize, the Mother Teresa Memorial Award for Social Justice and International Prize for Equality and Non-Discrimination among others.

Her birthday, July 12, has been named “Malala Day”.

Praising Malala’s initiative, Tertiary Education Minister Fazal Karim said, “We in Trinidad and Tobago are extremely fortunate to live in a country where all of our citizens are offered universal, free access to education from the pre-school to tertiary levels and as such we can be seen as a model of what this young lady is advocating for across the world.”

A statement from the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) confirmed that Malala will be hosted by the institution in celebration of its tenth anniversary.

“She is a transformative voice in this generation – an advocate for the rights of girls in all countries and cultures to be able to access quality education,” the statement said.

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Pakistani teenage activist, Malala Yousafzai, to visit Trinidad and Tobago