Malala Yousafzai Brings Literacy to Women via Mobile Phones

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Malala Yousafzai is making good on her plans to change the world, in this case, one phone at a time. The 16-year-old is teaming up with the international phone company Vodafone to provide “mobile-based literacy learning” to 569 million women and girls around the world who can’t read or write.

Yousafzai gained international recognition when she endured a shocking shooting by the Taliban in her hometown of Mingora, Pakistan, where she was championing education for girls who are usually pulled out before secondary school. After Yousafzai attack she moved to England for surgery and recovery, and wrote her first book last year, entitled I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and has continued to speak out for women’s educational rights, including access to technology.

Access to a cell phone and the web can be a great combination to prevent all kinds of ills, Vodafone Foundation director Andrew Dunnett told Wired.

Dunnett alluded to the Foundation's newly released report, which estimates that connecting more women globally on mobile phones could help pull 5.3 million out of illiteracy by 2020, and as a knock-on effect help reduce the number of domestic violence attacks perpetrated against women by 80,000 during the same time frame. The latter can be deduced from an increased access to the right information, an increased sense of empowerment through education and access to mobile crisis alert systems. Yousafzai will officially announce the phone company's partnership with her charity, the Malala Fund at today's Connected Women Summit in London.