She became the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year, and now Malala Yousafzai has become the first ever living child to win the World Children’s Prize. Not only that, she’s given her $50,000 prize money to the children of Gaza.
Over 100,000 were left homless after the conflict between Gaza and Israel this summer, and many other buildings, including schools, were obliterated.
‘This money will totally go to the rebuilding of schools for children in Gaza, so I think it will definitely help those children to continue their education, to get quality education,’ Malala, 17, told reporters at a press conference announcing her as this year’s winner.
‘We already know how children have suffered in Gaza from conflicts and war, so those children need our support right now because they are going through many difficult situations,’ she said.
The only other child to ever win the prize was Anne Frank, years after she’d passed away in a Nazi concentration camp.
Malala was shot in the head by the Taliban in her native Pakistan in 2012 for speaking out about girls’ rights to an education.
Her prize money will go to UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, which will use the funds to help rebuild 65 schools destroyed in the fighting. The group is trying to raise $1.6 billion to rebuild the devastated region.
Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.