UNESCO and Pakistan this week launched the Malala Fund for Girls’ Education at a high-level event held as part of the celebrations for Human Rights Day. At the event, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari (pictured, with UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova) announced that his country would donate the first $10 million.
The occasion was dedicated to 15-year-old Pakistani school girl Malala Yousafzai, who was the target of an assassination attempt by the Taliban last October because of her defense of the right of girls to go to school. The aim was to give new momentum to the quest to provide access to school for all girls by 2015.