In 1969, Juggy Sound Studio in New York City was forever changed. That year, Led Zeppelin recorded part of their album Led Zeppelin II there, including the song “Ramble On,” the album’s seventh track. Co-written by frontman Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page, who also produced the track, the song has remained a staple of the band’s extraordinarily rocking catalog for more than half a century.

So when Plant, at the ripe young age of 77, casually strolled onto the set of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and flawlessly belted out the song, fans took notice. Yes, his face has more wrinkles—time will do that to a person. But it’s time itself that has made the lyrics to this song all the more meaningful.

“Like he wrote it this morning”

X user Guitar Gods Unleashed shared the video, writing, “‘Ramble On’ is 56 years old, and Robert Plant just walked onto The Late Show and made it sound like he wrote it this morning.”

The comments feel fitting for such a powerhouse performance.

“You see aging rock stars trying to replay their youth,” one X user wrote. “Then you have Robert Plant being Robert Plant, and it rivals the original from half a century ago. Just incredible.”

Another fan shared just how brilliant the performance was.

“To craft a new arrangement of a rock classic – a completely new composition – centered around the limitations your aging 80-year-old voice… and create something still so artistic and beautiful… it’s why this man is on the shortest of short lists of the best front men of all time,” they wrote.

The Lord of the Rings

Another user pointed out that the lyrics reference J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved The Lord of the Rings, which was later adapted into films.

“I like that ‘Ramble On’ has Lord of the Rings references from back when Robert was reading the book series,” they wrote. “I had no idea what Lord of the Rings was back when I first became a fan of the song, but eventually I said, ‘wait…did he mention Gollum and Mordor?’”

In a piece for Far Out Magazine, Jack Whatley explored how bands are influenced by authors.

“The singer [Robert Plant] used moments throughout the lyrics to express his connection; lines like ‘the darkest depths of Mordor’ and ‘Gollum and the evil one’ are both doffs of the caps to the writer,” Whatley wrote. “Many artists have made references to great literature in their time; whether it is The Beatles and C.S. Lewis’ influence on ‘I Am The Walrus’ or The Cure’s nod to Albert Camus.”

The lyrics are hauntingly beautiful and even more impactful now that Plant is older.

“Leaves are fallin’ all aroundIt’s time I was on my wayThanks to you, I’m much obligedFor such a pleasant stay

But now it’s time for me to goThe autumn moon lights my wayFor now, I smell the rain, and with it, painAnd it’s headed my way

Ah, sometimes I grow so tiredBut I know I’ve got one thing I’ve got to do

Ramble onAnd now’s the time, the time is nowSing my songI’m goin’ ’round the world, I gotta find my girl

On my wayI’ve been this way ten years to the dayI’m gonna ramble onGotta find the queen of all my dreams

Got no time for spreadin’ rootsThe time has come to be goneThough our health, we drank a thousand timesIt’s time to ramble on

Ramble onAnd now’s the time, the time is nowSing my songI’m goin’ ’round the world, I gotta find my girl

On my wayI’ve been this way ten years to the dayI’m gonna ramble onGotta find the queen of all my dreams

I ain’t tellin’ no lie

Mine’s a tale that can’t be toldMy freedom I hold dearHow years ago in days of oldWhen magic filled the air

‘Twas in the darkest depths of MordorI met a girl so fairBut Gollum and the evil oneCrept up and slipped away with her, her, her, her, her, yeah

And ain’t nothin’ I can do, noI guess I’ll keep on

Ramblin’, I’m gonna saySing my song, I’ve gotta find my babyI’m gonna ramble on, sing my songGonna work my way, gonna ramble onGonna ramble on, yeah-yeah”

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When asked to describe what Tanzania smells like, Grace Isekore closes her eyes and breathes in deep. For a moment, she’s somewhere else entirely. Tanzania is a rich tapestry of sights and scents, from the smell of sea mist that permeates the coastline to the earthy cardamom and cloves she cooks with in her kitchen. But when Grace emerges from her reverie, her answer is unexpected.

“Tanzania smells like peace,” she says, her eyes still closed. “I see a beautiful country where we are free to move, free to speak. And there is peace within the community.” 

For Grace, that sense of peace isn’t just something she smells; it’s something she works toward every day. As a project coordinator with Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC), a women-led organization that empowers pastoralist communities in northern Tanzania, she has seen firsthand how girls flourish when they have the opportunity to attend school. Like scent, education not only connects girls to their own culture, but also helps broaden their horizons, realizing new possibilities for themselves and others. That transformation reshapes entire communities and ripples outward, with the potential to change countries and transform the world for the better. 

Different scents, different approaches, and communities driving change

For Grace and others around the world, education is freedom, as well as a pathway to a stronger community. Rooted in that shared  belief, Pura, a home fragrance company, was inspired to build on their four-year partnership with Malala Fund to create something truly unique: a fragrance collection that connects people through scent to communities in Tanzania, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Brazil, where barriers to girls’ education are among the highest. 

Using ingredients from each region, the new Pura x Malala Fund Collection uses scent to transport people to these regions directly. “Future in Bloom,” for example, invokes Pakistan’s lush valleys through notes of jasmine, cedarwood, and mango; while Tanzania’s fragrance, “Heart on Fire,” evokes the spirit and joyfulness of the girls who live there through cardamom, lemon, and green tea. 

The new Collection honors the work Malala Fund does every day, partnering with locally-led organizations in these four countries to ensure every girl can access and complete 12 years of education. Each scent celebrates the joy, tenacity, and courage of the women and girls driving change on the ground, while also augmenting Pura’s annual grant to Malala Fund by donating eight percent of net revenue from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection to Malala Fund directly. 

Just as each country’s scent is unique, so too are their needs related to education. But with support from Malala Fund and Pura, local leaders are coming up with creative ways to mobilize entire communities (parents, teachers, elders, and the students themselves, in their pursuit of solutions, understanding that educating girls helps everyone thrive. Here’s how their efforts are creating real, durable impact in Tanzania and Pakistan, and creating a ripple effect that changes the world for the better. 

Parent-teacher associations help Maasai girls and their communities in Tanzania problem-solve 

Northern Tanzania, Grace’s home, is home to pastoralist communities like the Maasai, a nomadic people who have moved with the seasons to nurture the land and care for their livestock for centuries. The nomadic nature of this lifestyle creates significant and unique barriers to girls’ education. Longstanding gender roles have enabled Maasai to survive in the harsh environment and have placed great value on both women and men. Over time, as nomadic life has been threatened by the privatization of land and stationary education models have been implemented, the reality of pastoralist livelihood has shifted and introduced new complexities. Now, the sheer distance to schools is both a practical challenge and one that often comes with danger from the landscape, predators, and potential exposure to assault along the journey. Girls shoulder the responsibility of household chores and there is often cultural pressure around early marriage – both leading to boys’ education being prioritized over girls’. 

“There are very, very good [pastoralist] cultural practices, which are passed from generation to generation,” says Janet Kimori, an English teacher at Lekule Girls Secondary School in Longido, Tanzania. But when cultural practices act as educational barriers, “you have to sit down and look for where you are going to assist. As a school, as an individual, the school administration—all of us will chip in and know how we are going to deal with this problem.” 

PWC works to ensure girls are able to exercise their right to an education while also preserving pastoralist culture. One successful approach, the organization found, has been the formation of Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs), created with help from Malala Fund. In PTA meetings, students, parents, teachers, elders, and government officials meet, discuss educational barriers, and come up with community-led solutions that preserve and honor their culture while advancing educational outcomes. 

One recent PTA meeting highlights how these community-led solutions are often the most effective. At Lekule Girls Secondary School, the lack of fresh water forces girls to walk long distances to collect water for the school’s kitchen during the school day, and these long journeys not only disrupt class time but can leave girls vulnerable to sexual assault in isolated areas. Through facilitated discussion, PTA members landed on a solution: installing a borehole to pipe in fresh water to the school. Reliable access to water creates a better learning environment for the girls, but it also benefits the community at large, as local governments are then more likely to invest in health clinics and other community resources nearby. 

With a solution in place, the PTA was then able to discuss ideas and map out a course of action. The women would raise money for the cost of the borehole, while the men would recruit workers to dig the hole and lay the pipe. Together, they would ask government officials to match their investment. 

The benefits of PTA meetings within the pastoralist communities are undeniable. “The girls are talking and addressing issues in a confident way, and parents feel they are part of the resource team to solve challenges happening at school,” Grace says. One unexpected benefit: The larger cultural impact these PTA meetings have created. Thanks to the success of PTAs within pastoralist communities, the models are now being endorsed on a national level, and schools across Tanzania are starting to use them to solve problems in their own communities. When a community creates opportunities for girls to learn, everyone benefits. 

Safe spaces in rural Pakistan help students and their parents connect, then drive change

A continent away in Pakistan, the country’s northernmost region of Gilgit-Baltistan seems like a land untouched by time. The region’s looming mountains, snow-capped peaks, lush valleys and crystalline lakes draw nature lovers and landscape photographers from around the world, but living among this kind of breathtaking scenery has its drawbacks. Schools in the region are few and far between, and the area’s harsh climate often makes roads inaccessible for travel. Poverty and gender-based discrimination are additional obstacles, making school even further out of reach, and girls are affected disproportionately. Going up against these barriers requires a persistent, quiet strength that’s found in the women who live there and reflected in Pakistan’s signature scent. 

Saheli Circles are how local leaders in Gilgit-Baltistan are bridging the gap between girls and education. An Urdu term for “female friend,” Saheli Circles are after-school safe spaces where girls explore subjects like art and climate change, while also developing skills that help them manage emotions, set goals, and build positive relationships. Girls study in groups, visit the library, play sports, and tackle filmmaking and photography projects, all designed to develop self confidence and teach the girls how to advocate for issues that matter to them. But the work doesn’t stop there. 

“What we’re trying to achieve here will only be impactful if it trickles down to the home environment and the school environment,” says Marvi Sumro, founder and program director of Innovate, Educate, and Inspire Pakistan (IEI), the local organization that developed the Saheli Circles model and partnered with Malala Fund in 2021 to make it a reality. Ever since, Saheli Circles have grown to involve teachers, elders, and parents to encourage relationship building that’s essential for young girls and adolescents. “Our spaces can give mothers and daughters an opportunity to interact a little differently—do an art activity, or have a cup of tea together, or some good conversation,” Marvi says. 

The relationship building is what makes the biggest positive impact throughout the community. Recently, one Saheli Circle was able to bring together parents, teachers, and administrators to advocate for better education at their local school, and together they convinced the department of education to hire a science teacher. Another Saheli Circle organized a fund where members of the community can contribute monthly to pay for uniforms, books, and other school expenses for the girls in their village, eliminating those small, hidden costs that are often a barrier to education for many. A third Saheli Circle was able to produce a short film about how gender-based household chores can take away valuable study time from girls, leaving them at a disadvantage. “The girls put the film together and showed it to the mothers, and the response from the mothers was just beautiful,” Marvi says. 

The education and relationship building that the girls receive in Saheli Circles connects them to larger opportunities and economic freedom that are not possible in their hometown. “For girls in........

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