This is a nice change from surly pig-headed anti-feminist science dudes – A Mighty Girl on another mighty girl.

Dubbed the ‘Malala’ of Syrian refugees, 16-year-old Mezon Almellehan goes from tent to tent each morning to encourage girls in her camp to go to school. “We have the right to attend school and I feel I have a responsibility towards the community,’ Almellehan told the Malala Fund. ‘As a girl, I can find friendly ways to convince a girl to continue with her studies.'”

Today marks World Refugee Day, an annual observance to raise awareness of the plight of the nearly 60 million refugees in the world today — more than any time in recorded history. Like four million of her fellow Syrians, Mezon fled from her war-torn country with her family and now lives in the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan. According to the UN, half the world’s refugees are children like Mezon.

Last year, Mezon had the opportunity to meet Malala Yousafzai during the girls’ education activist’s visit to the Zaatari refugee camp where Mezon was living at the time. Malala was so impressed by Mezon’s passion for education that she invited her to be one of her guests when she received the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway last December.

Mezon, who hopes to be a journalist one day, faces many obstacles — such as the fact that her school lacks electricity — but she remains undaunted in her pursuit of education and her efforts to encourage other girls to continue their studies. Malala has also been a major inspiration to this determined Mighty Girl: “To me, Malala is a big hero because she suffered a lot and she almost died of her injury. For me, as a refugee, this means I do not have to give up hope, which means I can get an education.”

To read more about Mezon on the Malala Fund blog, visit http://bit.ly/18Nv0vZ

Nearly two million Syrian refugees like Mezon live in camps run by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency — to help support their efforts to save the lives of these families fleeing war, visit http://bit.ly/JOFn6A