A shape-shifting event like the global pandemic affects almost everyone on the planet— but it especially affects children. They have seen their education, social, mental, and physical health development, and nutrition badly— perhaps permanently— damaged. And what’s bad for kids is worse for girls because in too many countries, especially in low- and middle-income countries, girls don’t have anywhere near adequate access to schools, health care, or even food.

The Malala Fund, launched by Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, is dedicated to a simple proposition: all girls, everywhere should have free, safe, quality education. In this episode of the New Thinking for a New World Podcast, Dr. Maliha Khan, one of the leaders of the Malala Fund, talks about how the pandemic has made that goal even more difficult to achieve.