Putting on a brave face: I’m getting better day by day, says Malala

Activist promises to continue promoting education.

LONDON:

In a video message released on Monday, her first public statement since being brutally attacked by the Taliban in October, young activist Malala Yousafzai said she is gradually recovering and expressed her determination to promote girls education in Pakistan.

“Today you can see that I am alive. I can speak, I can see you, I can see everyone and I am getting better day by day,” said the 15-year-old, in a message made before she underwent surgery on her skull on Saturday.

“It’s just because of the prayers of people. Because all people – men, women, children – all of them have prayed for me.  And because of all these prayers God has given me this new life – a second life.”



Despite the threats to her life, the teenager expressed her resolve to promote education.

“And I want to serve. I want to serve the people. I want every girl, every child, to be educated. For that reason, we have organised the Malala Fund,” she added. The Malala Fund is a charity set up in late 2012 to promote education for girls.

Meanwhile, both Malala’s surgeries on Saturday were reportedly successful. “Malala is now recovering in hospital. Her medical team is very pleased with the progress she has made so far,” the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham said in a statement.



In an attack that drew worldwide condemnation, a Taliban gunman shot Malala at point-blank range as her school bus travelled through Swat Valley on October 9. Surgeons in Pakistan saved her life with an initial operation to relieve the pressure on her brain before she was flown to Britain to be treated at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, central England.

Doctors say the bullet grazed Malala’s brain and travelled through her head and neck before lodging in her left shoulder.

In the surgery this weekend, she had a titanium plate fitted to replace part of her skull and surgeons inserted an implant to help restore the hearing in her left ear. 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2013.