education for the better. It’s something
we have to keep learning and
implementing at the same time. We
must also continue to inspire
entrepreneurs to innovate education in
Shiza: We believe in the power of local leaders
and entrepreneurs and aim to support and
amplify their work through our partnerships.
the Malala Fund invests in early stage or small
organizations that are led by these local
entrepreneurs in areas where girls don't have
access to education.
CG: So you are basically acting as a catalyst to
expand The Malala Fund’s reach and impact in
places otherwise inaccessible?
Shiza: That’s right. Our partners are
entrepreneurs and leaders who have proven their
concepts, but need funding to attain some
level of scale and eventually be able to
apply to the bigger VCs and investors. We
make grants that help their organizations
scale their impact to lead to systems level
change in the country.
Megan Smith, one of our founding board
members and Vice President at Google,
explains this well. She says, “If you take
someone from 200 years ago and insert
them into a today’s world they’d be
completely shocked at all the drastic
changes, but if you insert them into a
classroom it will look almost exactly the
same.”
CG: What are your plans with the Malala
Fund going forward?
Shiza: Going forward, we must
continuously innovate in order to change
their own communities. We are devoted to getting
access to education for girls all over the world, but
we can’t do it all by ourselves. The Fund's goal is to
disperse between eight and ten investments per year
to entrepreneurs working to increase access to
education, from Asia to Africa to Latin America.
“If you take someone from 200 years
ago and insert them into today’s
world they’d be completely shocked
at all the drastic changes, but if you
insert them into a classroom it
would look almost exactly the
same.”
On October 10, 2014, Malala Yousafzai won The
Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her unwavering
courage and “heroic struggle” for girls’ access to
education in spite of extremist views.