Abuse council welcomes Yousafzai to Hamilton

The father of teen activist Malala Yousafzai was on hand today to help the Community Child Abuse Council of Canada open their new office in Hamilton.

Ziauddin Yousafzai met with organizers and MPs David Sweet and David Christopherson to officially open the council’s new site. It’s their belief that thriving children create thriving communities – something Yousafzai knows well.

His 17 year old daughter Malala is the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She was targeted and shot in the head by the Taliban for promoting education for girls in Pakistan.

He talked about his strategy for getting children who may be facing abuse to come forward. “In my school I used to tell the girls, ‘look, I’m your grandmom.’ ‘Believe me’, I used to tell them. ‘I’m your Grandmom. Tell me whatever problem you face, that you face on your way to school, if you face at home, if you face in school.'”

“‘From a teacher, from your class below, from a male teacher, from a female teacher, please tell me’, and it works.”

One of the council’s areas of concern is children who are newcomers to Canada, who can be more prone to persecution, sexual abuse and war trauma.