Staff Reporter
Windhoek-The youngest person to ever win the Nobel prize Malala Yousafzai has partnered with 13-year-old American singer Grace VanderWaal and 18-year-old Sarah Greichen to represent a generation of fearless young females empowering youth with messages of inclusion, courage, and confidence, through the Foundation for a Better Life’s ‘Pass it on’ campaign. The campaign will run throughout 2018 with messages on values of courage and confidence, in 200 countries.
Malala is a voice of hope – advocating for the 130 million girls around the world who are not in school. She is young, bold and determined to make an impact for girls and their right to education. Her message for the year is ‘Girls should history. And make it. Courage is in you.’
Malala is a Pakistani activist, student, UN Messenger of Peace and the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. At age 15, she was shot by the Taliban for speaking out against their ban on girls’ education. Malala recovered, continued her campaign and, as co-founder of Malala Fund, is building a global movement of support for 12 years of girls’ education. Now 20, she attends university in the United Kingdom.
Established in 2000, the Foundation for a Better Life creates public service campaigns communicating the values that make a difference in communities. These uplifting messages utilizing television, movie theatres, billboards and radio along with digital and social media, are meant to inspire and encourage viewers to take positive action in the world.
“Malala, Grace, and Sarah, are showcasing the values that lie within them to inspire others in their communities and around the world,” said Gary Dixon, president, Foundation for a Better Life.
“Whether they are making an impact in their own backyards or around the world, these young women are using their powerful, impassioned voices to show us the values that lie within each of us – and how we can uplift others and change the world, or our corner of it – by having courage, confidence, and being inclusive,” said Dixon.
Hailed by Rolling Stone as a “pop prodigy,” VanderWaal, 13, unexpectedly skyrocketed to fame after winning the 11th season of NBC’s top-rated America’s Got Talent and releasing the best-selling EP Perfectly Imperfect and debut album Just the Beginning.
Recently named Billboard Women in Music’s 2017 Rising star, she is also one of Billboard’s 21 Stars Under 21 for the second time and recognized in Variety’s Youth Impact Report. VanderWaal is also a YouTube and social media influencer who is on a mission to use her incredible voice to empower young girls. She joined the Pass It On campaign to spread the importance of confidence.
Greichen is the founder and chief executive officer of Score A Friend and serves as a consultant to Score A Friend clubs across the country. The Denver, Colorado native created the organization after designing a program to help her twin brother, who has an autism spectrum disorder and experienced a lack of inclusion in his schools and community, find a friend. The mission of Score A Friend is to support the education and activation of youth leaders in advancing inclusion in the world for youth of all abilities.