For my birthday, all I want is to support vulnerable children in Gaza in any way possible.

If you can spare a few dollars, would have otherwise shouted me a meal or gifted a present - please consider donating.

Donations raised will be split between UNICEF, Save the Children and Medecins Sans Frontiers to their direct Gaza appeals, more details below.

I spent a year working for UNICEF Cambodia and I know I’m not alone in the deep sense of helplessness that being back home can bring. Fundraising is just one action we can take.

Thank you all

Elliot

*** Further Gaza information below ***

FROM SAVE THE CHILDREN:

Children are starving to death as malnutrition rates have officially reached famine level in Gaza. And now the UN Commission has concluded that genocide is being committed.

What our teams are witnessing in Gaza is consistent with the UN’s findings: around 65,000 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 20,000 children. Thousands more are missing, buried under the rubble that has replaced Gaza’s once lively streets. Nine out of 10 people in Gaza have been forcibly displaced - most of them multiple times - into increasingly shrinking pockets of land that cannot sustain human life.

More than half a million people are starving. Famine is spreading.

FROM UNICEF:

Children make up roughly half of Gaza’s population of nearly 2.3 million people, and they are dying at an alarming rate. The situation is deeply heartbreaking, and the number of children killed in this conflict alone has now exceeded the total number of children killed globally in all conflict.

In July alone, over 12,000 children were identified as acutely malnourished, and with fewer than 15 per cent of essential nutrition treatment services currently functional, the risk of malnutrition-related deaths among infants and young children is higher than ever before.

UNICEF teams remain on the ground in Gaza providing emergency services across health, nutrition, clean water and child protection. This includes screening and treating children for malnutrition, providing psychosocial support to children and their caregivers, repairing damaged water infrastructure, and getting aid and lifesaving supplies in whenever possible.

FROM MSF:

The bombing right now in Gaza is relentless and has turned a chronic humanitarian crisis into a catastrophe.

People have been killed while forced to move, looking for safety. More than 2 million people are trapped, unable to escape, with absolutely nowhere safe to go. They’re deprived of essential needs – water, food, protected shelter, medicines.

MSF is providing emergency medical care in Gaza, treating wounded, setting up and supporting medical facilities, working wherever they can under extremely challenging access, funding and supply constraints.

This includes treatment of malnutrition - especially in children, pregnant or breastfeeding women.