Malala Yousafzai, the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is to donate $50,000 (39,000 euros) to help rebuild United Nations schools in Gaza, the UN's Palestinian refugee agency said Wednesday. The 17-year-old Pakistani children's rights activist won the World Children's Prize in Stockholm on Tuesday, and said she would donate all of that prize money to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA said in a statement.
"Innocent Palestinian children have suffered terribly and for too long," UNRWA quoted Malala as saying. "We must all work to ensure Palestinian boys and girls, and all children everywhere, receive a quality education in a safe environment." Several UNRWA schools were damaged during the 50-day conflict in July and August between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, and nearly 2,200 Palestinians were killed, almost a quarter of them children.
On the Israeli side, 73 people were killed, including one child. UNRWA's director Pierre Krahenbuhl said he was "deeply touched" by Malala's decision to donate her prize money to the agency. "Recognition by you, a Nobel laureate... will lift the spirits of a quarter of a million UNRWA students in Gaza and boost the morale of our more than 9,000 teaching staff there," he said.