Eily Knight

Staff Writer

 

“122 million girls have no access to education,” Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, the Malala Fund’s Global Lead for Grant Strategy, told community members, students, and educators at Milliken Auditorium at NMC’s Dennos Museum. Her words hung in the earthy air, scents of turmeric and cumin wafting in from the hallway, where curry was served at the reception. A few gasped, and others quietly muttered to their seatmates at the absurd number. 

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With education being a given in the United States for everyone, regardless of gender, it seemed difficult for audience members to imagine a part of the world where women and girls are still merely objects meant to vanish behind marriage in their early teen years— but they exist.

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On Nov. 11, Gunawardena-Vaughn participated in a student session with a World Cultures class, as well as other interested NMC students. This was followed by an event hosted by the International Affairs Forum (IAF) on Nov. 12, where Ziuaddin Yousafzai, a co-founder of the Malala fund and father to Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, joined her on stage. The pair dove into the mission of the Malala Fund with Dr. Ken Warner, the moderator for the event (and NMC Board member), while also sharing their personal experiences and inspiration behind their passion: ensuring education for all girls. 

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The Malala Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to securing at least 12 years of free, safe, and quality education for girls across the world, who would otherwise have no access. Founded by Malala, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner, and her father Ziauddin Yousafzai, the fund has been working for nearly 13 years in poverty-stricken countries, including Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Brazil, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Tanzania.

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During the IAF-hosted event at NMC, Gunawardena-Vaughn talked about these countries and the new approach that the Malala Fund is taking. She said that following the Malala Fund’s Strategic Planning Meeting in January, they are moving away from simply buying the resources and choosing to instead focus on policy advocacy and fixing the problems at their roots, which will impact hundreds of thousands more girls.

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One of the main ways that the Malala Fund is doing this is through what they call their “Education Champion Network,” also known as partners, which are organizations working on the ground in these countries for the Malala Fund. 

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 “They work in tandem with local NGOs, government agencies, and regional and provincial governments to advance a girl’s rights to education through various aspects of legislation that is relevant to their country,” Gunawardena-Vaughn elaborated.

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In Afghanistan, which Yousafzai notes has the highest number of out-of-school girls, the Taliban continues to issue a stream of restrictive edicts that systemically erase women and girls from public life. 

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“Girls are not allowed to access education, they’re not allowed to speak loudly in public—what a way to silence women and girls,” said Gunawardena-Vaughn, clearly aggravated by the injustice. She then called this a form of “invisibilizing” half the population, a reality that both Yousafzai and Gunawardena-Vaughn argue should be recognized globally as gender apartheid and codified as a crime against humanity.

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“While the situation in Afghanistan is quite dire,” Gunawardena-Vaughn said, “other countries have huge populations of out-of-school girls as well.” She promptly continued down the list of countries, and what the Malala Fund and their partners are doing to help them. The fund also has initiatives in countries including Tanzania, Nigeria, Brazil, and Ethiopia.

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“The kind of multiplier effect of these barriers makes it almost impossible for certain girls in certain communities to access education,” she said, reminding the audience that education is not a privilege but a fundamental human right. 

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However, laws are only good if the people and the communities support and implement them fully.“You have to change communities, you have to win hearts, you have to win minds, and then legislative policies that get passed will get implemented," she said.

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She further explained, with hopeful gusto, that what is essential to making these laws meaningful is “Building solidarity among youth across countries, amplifying the voices of rural and disadvantaged girls, and transforming community attitudes.” 

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Ziuaddin Yousafzai and Gunawarden-Vaughn had different experiences and upbringings, but both ended up leading them down a path to stand up and fight for what they believe in: a girl's right to education.

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Yousafzai grew up in a small village in Pakistan in a patriarchal family with five sisters and one older brother. Although they grew up under the same roof, he witnessed two entirely different parenting styles and expectations compared to his sisters. 

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He stated solemnly, “I could see that my parents had hundreds of dreams for this one boy, but for the five sisters, their only dream was to get them married as early as possible.”

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He was always provided with better clothes, commodities, and most importantly, education— his true passion, the most influential factor that changed and formed him into the man he is today. This led him to the realization that the worst discrimination that his five sisters went through was deprivation from schooling. 

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“Education changed me and transformed me into the kind of person that I became in my life, and it gave me the beautiful values of equality, compassion, love, and respect,” he said, “I became a staunch believer of education, particularly girls' education.”

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This inspired him to open a school of his own in the Swat Valley of Pakistan in 1994, which included girls—a rare and controversial move at the time. Although it struggled with financial hardships in its early days, the school that started with three students has blossomed to enroll a thousand students in this upcoming year.

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His passion trickled into his own parenting, where he made sure to include and encourage his daughter, Malala, to follow her dreams and speak her mind— to equip her with the confidence to become the woman she wanted to be.

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He is spearheading male allyship by discussing the benefits and importance that educating girls brings to a community with various community and religious leaders, something Gunawarden-Vaughn believes is very important.

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“I think for fathers to hear from another father is, again, a very relational connection thing.” She said.

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Being brought up by a father similar to Yousafzai, Gunawarden-Vaughn said she is living proof of the positive impact a father’s support has on his daughters.

“I have so much gratitude for fathers who allow their daughters to write their own stories and to dream huge dreams,” she said.

Her father rejected the label, she said, but for all intents and purposes, he was a feminist. She grew up in a household where her parents supported her education first and foremost, rather than marriage.  

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Her father’s own mother didn’t get married until she was 30 with a master's degree, an unaccustomed path for a woman in the 1930s. But this ingrained the value of believing in and educating women, a principle he brought to his own family.

“When you educate a girl or woman, that impact is multigenerational,” she stated.

 

 

 

Refusing education to girls not only violates their fundamental right, but it also has economic consequences. She estimated that between fifteen to thirty trillion dollars is lost globally in income, assets, and resources by denying girls’ education. Knowledge allows them to unlock their potential, express their ideas, and bring value to not only their communities, but also the world, she claimed: “investing in girls is investing in hope.”

Yousafzai left the audience with one last piece of advice: to advocate for their rights when violated, to be the people who correct injustice rather than wait for someone else to get involved.

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He stated, “When we stand for something, work for it, and we lead by example with empathy, the people really change.”