The Elevate Prize Foundation announced Malala Yousafzai as this year’s recipient of The Elevate Prize Catalyst Award in recognition of her long-standing advocacy for girls’ education, including through her work with Malala Fund, the non-profit she co-founded with her father to champion every girl’s right to 12 years of free, safe, quality education.
Credit/Copyright: The Elevate Prize Foundation.
The award was presented to Malala onstage at the Clinton Global Initiative 2022 Meeting by the foundation’s founder, Joseph Deitch, and CEO, Carolina García Jayaram, acknowledging her courage in standing up to world leaders and inspiring young people to mobilize in support of the girls and women in Afghanistan.
The Elevate Prize Catalyst Award recognizes prominent individuals who use their influence to inspire social action and provides $250,000 in unrestricted funding to advance their mission and scale their work, along with providing valuable development resources and partnership opportunities. Previous recipients of the award include Amal and George Clooney for their collective action with The Clooney Foundation for Justice, and Trevor Noah for his work with The Trevor Noah Foundation.
“As global crises put progress for girls’ education at risk, this support from The Elevate Prize Foundation could not come at a more critical time,” said Malala Yousafzai, co-founder and board chair of Malala Fund. “Malala Fund will use these funds to support young Afghan women and advocate to end the nation’s ban on girls’ secondary education. We must ensure leaders fulfill their promises to girls and activate much needed change.”
Earlier this week, at the Transforming Education Summit hosted by the United Nations, Malala and Malala Fund advocated for girls and women in Afghanistan – the only country in the world banning a girl’s right to a secondary education, shining a spotlight on the crisis and calling on leaders and activists around the world to take action. Other key initiatives of Malala Fund include the Malala Fund Girl Programme, which launched in 2020 and gives young women around the world the tools they need to advocate for education and equality in their communities and a platform for the world to hear their voices, and the Education Champion Network, supporting education advocates and activists challenging policies and practices preventing girls from attending school.
“We are humbled to present this honor to Malala, one of the most inspiring activists of all time and one of the most influential voices of a generation poised to change the world,” said Carolina García Jayaram, CEO of The Elevate Prize Foundation. “Her commitment to amplifying not only the critical issue of girls’ education but also the voices of other young activists is the embodiment of what The Elevate Prize Catalyst Award stands for. She is a powerful reminder that driving positive change comes with no age requirements.”
Malala has also joined the Elevate Prize Foundation’s Judging Panel to decide on the next cohort of Elevate Prize winners, an annual award granting a total of $5 million worth of funds and services to 10 social impact leaders who are driving progress around the world. The Elevate Prize announced the selection of 20 finalists for the third cohort today. The winners will be announced in January 2023.
The Elevate Prize Foundation aims to serve as an engine for social good by helping changemakers raise their visibility, inspire others and, ultimately, multiply their reach and impact to “Make Good Famous.”
