Feature: Nomination for International Children's Peace Prize bolsters Afghan girl's resolve

"It has been my dream for a long time to receive support for my services to children and my nomination for the International Children's Peace Prize has inspired me to further serve the poor and needy children as much as I can," Aziza Rahimzada, 14, told Xinhua here on Sunday.

Teaching some two dozen students in a makeshift classroom, the ambitious girl nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize is important not just for her, but for all Afghan girls and for her war-torn country Afghanistan where nearly two million children cannot go to school due to security problems or

cultural barriers.

Nevertheless, the hardworking teenager does not mind if she doesn't win the prize, saying, that no matter if she wins or not she would continue to serve Afghanistan's needy and vulnerable children.

"I am extremely proud to be nominated for the prize and I feel joy and wish to win it," Aziza said.

"If I win, I would continue to serve the children and would continue to fight for their rights," she said.

This is the first time that an Afghan child has been nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize in recognition of her services and contribution to educating children and advocating for their rights in militancy-plagued Afghanistan.

In Afghanistan, according to officials, some 11 million children go to school, 37 percent of them are girls, while around 1.7 million school-aged children have been deprived of getting education due to poverty, traditional barriers and security problems.

Moreover, countless number of schools including around 100 in the southern Kandahar and Helmand provinces where the Taliban are active are reportedly closed down due to security reasons, according to officials.

Aziza, who is in grade 11 in a local school in Kabul and has been living in a makeshift camp of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) along with her family over the past 10 years, stressed that deprivation of poor children from education in the camp of displaced people inspired her to do something to help needy families.

"The residents of the camp don't have running water and the children travel around 1 km daily from the camp to fetch water from a well and bring it back," Aziza said, adding that to solve the problem of water shortage, she had approached numerous government entities and finally got a water pipe for all the camp dwellers.

Due to Aziza's efforts, presently all the children of 170 families living in the camp have national identity cards and facilities to study in the makeshift camp in the Karta Now neighborhood on the outskirts of Kabul.

The International Children's Peace Prize is awarded to a child annually in recognition of his or her services and significant contribution for advocating children's rights and improving the situation of vulnerable and poor children such as orphans and child laborers.

"I have facilitated more than 300 children receiving education over the past four years, and would continue my efforts to ensure children's rights in Afghanistan, no matter if I win the award or not win," Aziza told Xinhua. Enditem