Celebrating Malala Day Through Art: A Special Collaboration with Malala Fund

This July, our art studio had the incredible honor of hosting a truly meaningful celebration of Malala Day 2025. We were selected by the Malala Fund and Malala Yousafzai herself as the studio where she would mark her birthday in a unique and powerful way: through Art. This year’s celebration carried a special theme close to Malala’s heart: girls’ education. Malala wanted to create an artwork in collaboration with local students from Dar es Salaam at our studio, using painting as a tool to express the importance of education and amplify the voices of girls everywhere. In preparation for the event, I teamed up with two incredibly talented female artists, Theresia Massawe and Maureen Ngassala, who we consider them as our part-time studio artists. Together, we conceptualized and began a painting that symbolized our shared vision: a powerful image of a girl holding a microphone, raising her voice in a classroom setting, representing the idea of amplifying the rights of girls to education. We intentionally left the artwork unfinished. On July 12th (Malala Day), Malala arrived at our studio alongside her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, and other delegates from the Malala Fund. They were joined by a group of enthusiastic girl students from Kijitonyama Secondary School, who began the session by engaging in a heartfelt and inspiring conversation with Malala. Then came the highlight of the day: everyone, Malala, the students, her father, and the delegates, came together to complete the painting. It was a beautiful moment of collaboration, creativity, and shared purpose. The final artwork now hangs proudly in our studio, a lasting symbol of unity, advocacy, and the power of art to drive change. As part of our agreement with the Malala Fund, the piece remains here not only as a memory of that special day but as an inspiration to everyone who walks through our doors. We are deeply grateful for this opportunity and proud to have played a role in celebrating Malala Day in such a meaningful way. Art has the power to connect, uplift, and advocate, and this experience reminded us just how transformative it can be when used to tell the right story.