‘I will continue my fight, until I see every child in school,’ says Malala in Oslo

Stockholm: Child rights activists India's Kailash Satyarthi and Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai received this year's Nobel Prizes on Wednesday in Oslo.

• Let us begin a new beginning for the future, for the children.
• Let this be the last generation to see empty classrooms. Let this be the last time that a girl is forced into early marriage. Let this be the last time a child dies in war.
• Why is giving guns so easy and giving books so hard? Why is building a tank easier than building schools?
• Why children in developing countries be satisfied with basic education, when others study subjects like maths, science?
• We have seen some progress in the last couple of years. However, progress has not reached everyone.
• I hope the steps that Kailash Satyarti and I have taken so far and will take on this journey will also bring change - lasting change.
• I will continue this fight until I see every child has gone to school.
• The first place this funding of the Nobel Prize will go is where my heart is, to build schools in Pakistan-especially in my home of Swat and Shangla.
• Many children in India and Pakistan are deprived of their right to education because of social taboos, or they have been forced into child labour and girls into child marriages.
• We see people becoming refugees in Syria, Gaza, Iraq. Children killed in suicide attacks.
• People ask me why should girls go to school and study? I ask why shouldn't they?
• I am Shazia. I am Amina. I am one of those 66 million girls who are out of school.
• Today I'm not raising one voice, I'm raising the voice of 66 million girls.
• Though I appear as one girl, of five feet in height, I am not one, I am many.
• My story is not mine, it is the story of many children world over.
• We couldn't sit silent and see the injustice done by the terrorists. We wanted to speak out.
• I had 2 choices, be silent and get killed, or speak up and be killed, I chose the second option.
• Swat was a place of beauty, which suddenly changed into a place of terrorism. Our beautiful dreams turned into nightmare.
• Education is one of the blessings of life-and one of its necessities. That has been my experience during the 17 years life. We had a thirst for education because our future was right there in that classroom. We would sit and read and learn together.
• This award is for the forgotten children who want education.
• It is for those voiceless children who want change.
• I am here for all the children who want to raise their voice for their rights. I'm here for the children.
• My grandfather always called me Malala…the happiest girl in the world.
• I'm proud to share this award with Kailash Satyarthi whom I'm proud to address as a father.
• I am pretty certain that I am also the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize who still fights with her younger brothers. I want there to be peace everywhere, but my brothers and I are still working on that.
• I'm proud to be the first Pashtun, Pakistani and the youngest receiver of this award till date.
• I thank my father for not clipping my wings and for letting me fly. Thank you to my mother for inspiring me to be patient and to always speak the truth.
• Today is a day of great happiness for me. I am humbled that the Nobel Committee has selected me for this precious award.
• Malala Yousafzai begins her address after invoking God by reciting a couplet from the Quran.
• Malala Yousafzai starts addressing the gathering.
• Let us march from darkness to light. Let us march. With this, Satyarthi concludes his speech.
• Let us democratise knowledge, democratise universal justice, love and compassion.
• I see thousands of Mahatma Gandhis and Martin Luther Kings. I call for democratisation of education. I call for a march from slavery to liberty.
• 50 years ago, on the first day of my school, I met a cobbler boy sitting at the school gate, polishing shoes. I asked my teachers these questions: "Why is he working outside? My teachers had no answer.
• One day, I gathered the courage to ask the boys' father. He said: "Sir, I have never thought about it. We are just born to work." This made me angry. It still makes me angry. I challenged it then, and I am challenging it today.
• Governments must make child-friendly policies. Businesses must be more innovative. Inter governmental agencies must work together to exercise action.
• We must stand with our children. We must be bold and ambitious.
• Children are questioning our inaction and watching our action.
• Every single minute matters, every single child matters, every single childhood matters.
• We need collective action and urgency to free children.
• There is one serious disconnect in this world. It is the lack of compassion. Let us inculcate and transform the individuals' compassion into a global movement. Let us globalise compassion.
• There is one serious deficit, and that is compassion.
• My daughter Malala and daughters from all over the World are rising up and choosing courage over fear, peace over violence.
• Rights, security and freedom are a result of securing children's future.
• The day is not far when the cumulative result of all the failure will be suicidal for mankind.
• Undoubtedly, progress has been made in the last couple of decades. The number of out of school children has been halved. Child mortality and malnutrition has been reduced, and millions of child deaths have been prevented.
• Shackles of slavery not stronger than the quest for freedom.
• Young people like Malala are rising up everywhere.
• The single aim of my life is that every child is: free to be a child, free to grow and develop, free to eat, sleep, see daylight, free to laugh and cry, free to play, free to learn, free to go to school, and above all, free to dream.
• Are we so poor that we cannot give our children their dream?
• There is no greater violence than to deny dreams of children.
• I am here to share the dreams and voices of our children.
• I represent the sound of silence and the cry of innocence.
• I bow to my parents, my motherland and to mother earth.
• This mantra carries a prayer, an aspiration and a resolve that has the potential to liberate humanity from all man-made crises.
• I am deeply honoured to recite a mantra from the ancient texts, says Kailash Satyarthi.
• Kailash Satyarthi starts addressing the gathering.
• Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan is currently performing.
  
  
• Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai with the Nobel Peace Prize.
• Malala Yousafzai is now conferred the Nobel Peace Prize.
• Kailash Satyarthi is conferred the Nobel Peace Prize.
  
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The Nobel Laureates took centrestage in Sweden's capital Stockholm and Norwegian Oslo, where they will receive the Nobel medals, Nobel diplomas and documents confirming the Nobel Prize amount.

The entire nation watches the ceremony in Oslo with great joy & immense pride. Congratulations @k_satyarthi!

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 10, 2014

I also congratulate the young Malala Yousafzai for the momentous achievement.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 10, 2014

Ahead of the ceremony on Wednesday, Satyarthi told children in Oslo, “Every single child matters. Each time I go to rescue a child I think he is the most beautiful child on earth, that he is my own child. If one child is in danger, the whole world is in danger. No problem in the world is an isolated problem.”

“You have given me more energy than Red Bull”, Malala Yousafzai said to the children in Oslo.

She said, “All that children are asking for is quality education and schools. There are 66 million girls deprived of their education. If some of us get deprived of our rights then we are not able to go forward. Let us help each other and see the day when every child gets quality education.”

Satyarthi and Yousafzai on Tuesday said the Nobel Peace Prize gives them a tremendous opportunity in their fight and struggle for children's rights.

"Even if one single child is in danger, the entire world is in danger," Satyarthi said here at a joint press conference with Malala on the eve of award ceremony.

Satyarthi, 60, and Yousafzai, 17, will share $1.1 million Peace Prize.

Satyarthi is in Oslo, along with his wife Sumedha, son, daughter- in-law and daughter.

"This prize is very important for millions and millions of children who have been denied their childhood...As I am talking to you there are millions of children who are denied this freedom, we need to work for them," he said.

Satyarthi said there are children who are sold like animals...children who are forced into prostitution.. The children who are made hostages. The children who are made child soldiers. This Nobel peace prize gives tremendous opportunity in the fight and struggle for children's rights.

Describing Malala Yousufzai as his daughter, he said she is the bravest child one can think of. Malala, who survived a near-fatal Taliban attack two years ago with determination advocating education for girls, said she is proud to be a Muslim.

"We strongly believe in Islam. Islam is a religion of peace, but unfortunately there are people who don't know about this religion," Malala said, referring to Taliban militants.

Malala said that education is not restricted to a group, it's essential for everyone. It is a necessity of life. Why are we fighting for something, which we deserve? It is our right to go to school. Why should we fight for something we deserve? she asked.

Children don't ask for iPads, they just want a book and a pen, the Pakistani child rights activist said. You have to speak for yourself, learn to fight for yourself, she added.

In Oslo, the Nobel Peace Prize will be presented by the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in the presence of King Harald V and Queen Sonja, the government, representatives of Storting -- the supreme legislature of Norway -- and an invited audience.

Watch the event live here: