Malala Yousafzai gives powerful speech at Nobel Awards ceremony today

Malala Yousafzai brought five young girls as her guests at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony today (Dec. 10)

MALALA YOUSAFZAI, the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, accepted her award today (Dec. 10) and gave a moving, powerful speech to the audience in Oslo, Sweden.

This young woman, who has become an international advocate for peace and education for girls and a voice for the world's children is my hero!

For this first-ever Nobel Peace Prize "Girl Delegation," Ms. Yousafzai was joined by Shazia Ramzan and Kainat Riaz, her school friends from Swat who got shot along with her in an attack in 2012; Kainat Soomro from Sindh, Mezon Almellehan from Syria and Amina Yusuf from Nigeria.

The young women were her special guests when she receives the award at the ceremony to be held on Wednesday.

“Though I will be one girl receiving this award, I know I am not a lone voice,” Malala said in a statement.

“This Nobel Peace Prize is for all girls everywhere who want education. These courageous girls are not just my friends, they are now my sisters in our campaign for education for every child,” she added.

On exhibit at the Nobel Peace Prize Exhibit was her school uniform she was wearing on the day she was attacked by the Taliban and left for dead.

"My school uniform is very important to me because when I was going to school I would wear it," she said. "The day I was attacked I was wearing this uniform. I was fighting for my right to go to school, I was fighting for my right to get education. Wearing a uniform made me feel that yes, I am a student, I am doing it, practically. It is an important part of my life, now I want to show it to children, to people all around the world. This is my right, it is the right of every child, to go to school. This should not be neglected."

The bloodied school uniform that Malala Yousafzai
 wore on the day she was attacked  is on display at
the Nobel Peace Prize Exhibit. 

It's hard to believe that she is only 17-years old. I think of the teenagers that I work with and their  concerns about boyfriend/girlfriend matters, fashion and social media addiction, and I wonder if they can relate to Malala.

I think of the young people in the streets protesting the grand jury decisions in New York and Ferguson, Missouri; I think of those who get a thrill breaking windows and stealing from stores; I think of the young adolescent boys conscripted to fight for warlords in Africa; I think of the young girls kidnapped by those same warlords; I think of the young children in Syria, Iraq, Palestine and Israel; I think of the children in Africa whose parents have died from AIDS or ebola; I think of the millions of children in the Philippines, India and around the world who go to bed hungry.

I wish they could hear Malala and her message. She gives me hope -- and that is something we all need this turbulent holiday season.

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