Malala Yousafzai receives highest UN honour made youngest UN Messenger of Peace

Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has been made the youngest ever United Nations Messenger of Peace by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday to promote girls education, just more than four years after a Taliban gunman shot her in the head on her school bus in 2012.
The 19-year-old, who is doing her A-levels and has an offer from a top UK university, will take the role with a special focus on girls' education for an initial period of two years. She was also the youngest person to win the Nobel peace prize in 2014 when she was 17.

“You are not only a hero, but you are a very committed and generous person,” Guterres told Yousafzai.

Guterres described her as a "symbol of perhaps the most important thing in the world - education for all". 
 
In 2012 Ms Yousafzai was nearly killed by the Taliban for campaigning for girls' rights to education. She had narrowly escaped death after being attacked on her way home from school in Pakistan.

Accepting the accolade in New York, Malala said:

"(Bringing change) starts with us and it should start now."

"If you want to see your future bright, you have to start working now (and) not wait for anyone else," he said.

UN Messengers of Peace are selected from the fields of art, literature, science, entertainment, sports or other fields of public life.