Young Peaceheroes

(pronounced  mah-LAH-lah   yoo-sahf-ZIGH)

In 2014, at age 17, Malala became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

The award recognized Malala’s work to assure an education for herself and other girls. Her efforts continue throughout the world today.

Malala was born July 12, 1997, in the Swat Valley of northwestern Pakistan during the Taliban’s rule of the area. Her father, Ziauddin, inspired Malala’s love of education. He founded a private school for boys and girls. The Taliban actively banned the education of girls. They destroyed many schools for educating girls. Malala continued to attend school despite the danger. She even began speaking out for the right of girls to be educated.

In September 2008, Malala gave a speech in Peshawar, Pakistan.

At the age of 12, Canadian Craig Kielburger read a newspaper article that motivated him to take action. Iqbal Masih, a boy the same age in Pakistan, had lost his life defending other children.

Iqbal was kidnapped and sold into slavery at the age of four. He was chained to a carpet loom and forced to work up to 14 hours a day. Iqbal lived this way for six years. After being freed, Iqbal brought public attention to the plight of other enslaved children. His activism eventually led to his murder.

Craig felt compelled to take on the cause himself and went to work on a plan. He convinced 11 of his classmates to join him in fighting child labor. If Iqbal as one individual was able to bring the conditions of children to the media, what could they do as a team? The Free the Children movement took root.

Greta, at age 16, appeared on the 2019 TIME 100 for her work in sparking a number of youth-led protests that call for action on climate change. Thunberg started in August 2018 (at age 15) by spending her school days outside the Swedish parliament holding up a sign saying “School strike for climate”. She has since then called out world governments for not acting quickly enough to stop the effects of climate change.

She said: “You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes. Until you start focusing on what needs to be done rather than what is politically possible, there is no hope. We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis.”

https://youtu.be/VFkQSGyeCWg

At 13 years old, Autumn is a Anishinaabe-kwe and a member of the Wikwemikong First Nation and an internationally recognized champion for clean water.  She addressed world leaders at the United Nations in 2019 about protecting water.

A fierce advocate for water protection and conservation since the age of 8, Autumn was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and was named Top 30 Under 30 in North America in 2019. In April, 2019 she was named the chief water commissioner by the Anishinabek Nation.

https://youtu.be/zg60sr38oic