so I have received you know so many letters and cards and support from Brazil I would receive messages saying that Malala please come to Brazil we wanted to see you here and it was my dream to come here and finally I'm here I am so happy so excited this country is rich in terms of culture in terms of the energy that it has in in in among young people and the future that it wants to build a sustainable future so that was always giving me this positive energy about the future so I'm so happy and
excited to be here but also another reason that take brings me here is the fact that in Brazil there are 1.5 million girls who cannot have access to education and you all know that I believe in education I was myself deprived of Education when I was only 11 years old that was the time when these extremists called the Taliban and the stop girls in the north of Pakistan from going to school and they understood that the empowerment of women comes through education and that is why they said that no girl would be allowed to go
to school and that was when I realized that education was more than just learning and reading it was about emancipation it was about empowerment for women and since then I have been advocating for girls education globally and I want girls to be educated to have access to complete and quality education in every part of the world including Brazil so my my hope from this trip is that we can ensure we can find ways we can work with local activists to make sure that these 1.5 million girls can have access to education so they can contribute
to the country because educating girls is not just benefiting the girls individually but also helping build economies improve democracies and also bring stability to the countries so they're looking at the advantages I think we should not ignore this we should wish give full attention to this other than that another reason that brings me to Brazil is is the local activists that we find in Brazil who are working day and night working for improvement in the quality of education working to ensure that we that we have we have education for the most deprived communities in Brazil
especially the the the afro-brazilian communities and also the indigenous communities in Brazil so my goal was to come here and ensure that we invest in Brazil by working together with those local activists with those local advocates of Education who are reaching out the most deprived people and who are doing activism who are doing advocacy in the country so that's also something that I'm looking forward to but also the hope that you know one day we will see we will wake up you know and see that every girl in Brazil and across the world is going
to school she's safe she's not afraid of anyone she's getting quality education she can achieve her dreams she is not being pushed by anyone not to dream big that she can dream whatever she wants she can go to university she can become doctor teacher engineer she can join politics she can become a leader but also that she's not vulnerable she is not targeted by any kind of discrimination that she is not forced to get married at the age of 13 and 14 that she is not forced into child labor that she's not forced into child
trafficking so that is the vision that we have in which every girl is safe in which every girl can have access to safe and quality education that is possible through working together so I'm so grateful to everyone here who have shown their support who have given all their all their love their prayers to the cause that I stand for and to me personally as well and and I hope that by working together we can reach to this call we can achieve this dream that we have so once again thank you so much to all the
young girls and boys who are here just finishing on this line that education is the sustainable long-run investment that we must focus on thank you so much [Applause] you
