[00:00.00]From VOA Learning English,
[00:02.92]this is the Education Report.
[00:05.97]Malala Yousafzai spoke to hundreds of young people
[00:09.95]at the United Nations On Jule 12.
[00:13.08]It was her first public speech since last October
[00:17.23]when the schoolgirl was shot in the head
[00:20.02]by Taliban gunmen in Pakistan.
[00:23.12]The U.N. speech continued her campaign to educate children.
[00:28.14]"The terrorists thought they would change my aims
[00:32.18]and stop my ambitions,
[00:33.38]but nothing changed in my life except this:
[00:37.14]weakness, fear and hopelessness died.
[00:42.17]Strength, power and courage was born."
[00:45.78]On the day she spoke,
[00:47.67]two groups announced that 57 million children
[00:51.66]around the world are not going to school.
[00:54.95]The two are "Save the Children" and UNESCO
[00:58.89]- The United Nations Educational Scientific
[01:02.53]and Cultural Organization.
[01:04.47]A little more than half of those
[01:06.91]who are not going to school are girls.
[01:10.20]In September of 2012,
[01:13.18]U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced a program
[01:18.76]to get every boy and girl into school by 2015.
[01:23.43]Malala Yousafzai believes the goal is possible.
[01:28.13]"Let's pick up our books and our pens,
[01:31.48]they are our most powerful weapons.
[01:34.82]One child, one teacher, one book
[01:40.85]and one pen can change the world."
[01:44.33]Shiza Shahid is the executive director of
[01:48.11]a new program called the Malala Fund.
[01:50.55]She says the 16-year-old is a true spokes person
[01:55.18]and worrier for girls rights.
[01:57.97]The Malala Fund was created to support the voices
[02:01.45]calling for girls' education.
[02:04.14]The actress Angelina Jolie has donated $250,000 to the fund.
[02:11.12]A group called Women in the World donated $150,000.
[02:17.50]The first children served by the fund are 40 girls
[02:22.18]in Malala's hometown in the Swat Valley in Pakistan.
[02:27.76]These girls aged 5 to 12 had been working.
[02:32.54]Shiza Shahid says the girls have stoped working
[02:36.42]and are going to school.
[02:38.47]Malala Yousafzai is now going to school in England,
[02:42.35]but she talks to the girls in Swat Valley
[02:45.60]by the computer software program Skype.
[02:49.13]Shiza Shahid is also from Pakistan.
[02:52.76]She says the organizers of the Malala Fund are deciding
[02:57.84]what steps they can take to really change a girls' life.
[03:03.17]She says girls everywhere can help.
[03:07.08]Girls are also urged to tell their own stories online
[03:11.33]at malalafund.org.
[03:15.66]And that's the Education Report from Learning English,
[03:19.65]I'm Karen Leggett.