Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai visits Pakistan’s flood-hit areas

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Activist and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai is visiting Pakistan’s flood-affected areas – her second visit to her home country since she was shot in the head while returning from school in 2012.

Pakistan is reeling from the aftermath of unprecedented floods caused by torrential rain and melting glaciers that submerged nearly one-third of the country and killed more than 1,700 people since June, Al Jazeera reports.

Yousafzai, 25, who is a UN “messenger of peace” and a global girls’ education campaigner, is accompanied by her husband and parents on her visit to Pakistan, home to 220 million people.

A statement issued by her foundation, Malala Fund, said the visit is aimed at keeping the international attention “focused on the impact of floods in Pakistan and reinforce the need for critical humanitarian aid”.

Last month, the foundation issued an emergency grant to the International Rescue Committee to provide support to girls in Balochistan, one of the worst-hit provinces by the floods.

Shortly after her arrival on Tuesday, Yousafzai visited a primary school in Karachi and spent an hour there.

Last month, the activist met Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly in New York to discuss the challenges for millions of Pakistani children due to the catastrophic floods.