Malala Opens All-Girls School for Refugees Near Syrian Border

Education activist Malala Yousafzai celebrated her 18th birthday on Sunday by opening a school. The "Malala Yousafzai All-Girls School" is a secondary school near the border in Lebanon that will serve Syrian refugees.

"Today on my first day as an adult, on behalf of the world's children, I demand of leaders we must invest in books instead of bullets," Malala said.

The school will serve the more than 200 teen Syrian refugee girls living in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. There are now over a million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. As of this week, over four million Syrians have fled the country.

Malala is the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and a dedicated supporter of girls' education. In 2012, she was shot in the head by the Taliban in her native Pakistan for going to school and encouraging other young women to do the same. The Malala Fund was created to help young women around the world get quality secondary education.

The Malala Fund worked with the NGO KAYANY Foundation in Lebanon to open the school, which will provide both intellectual and practical skills to teen girls. They will be able to earn baccalaureate or vocational degrees, and those who cannot take four years of school can take courses to help them with future work.

Nearly three million Syrian children were not attending school as of last fall, according to a report by charity group Save the Children. Save the Children warns that without going to school, young people are at risk of child labor, early marriage and recruitment by armed militias.

Lost education is one of many devastating effects of the ongoing conflict in Syria. The United Nations Children's Fund warned on Monday that children in Syria are in need of clean water to avoid diseases as summer temperatures heat up.