Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai is seeking to raise $1.4 billion in order to provide education for Syrian refugees. She hopes to persuade world leaders to pledge the money at a conference in London on Thursday, according to Reuters. The Pakistani teenage education activist made headlines when, in 2012, she was shot in the head by the Taliban on her schoolbus.
The “Supporting Syria and the region” conference will see heads of state and government ministers from around the world converge on London to discuss raising funds for humanitarian crises caused by the Syrian war.
It is estimated that around 700,000 Syrian children currently living as refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East are not receiving an education.
"I have met so many Syrian refugee children, they are still in my mind. I can't forget them. The thought that they won't be able to go to school in their whole life is completely shocking and I cannot accept it," Malala told Reuters in a telephone interview.
"We can still help them, we can still protect them. They are not lost yet. They need schools. They need books. They need teachers. This is the way we can protect the future of Syria."
She will be joined at the conference by 17-year-old Muzoon Almellehan, a Syrian refugee she met while visiting the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. Almellehan is not living in the UK, and will be the only young Syrian refugee to address the attendees of the event.
