New York: Popular children’s educator and YouTube star Rachel Accurso, widely known as Ms Rachel, paid an emotional tribute to the children of Gaza during her acceptance speech at the Glamour Women of the Year 2025 Awards ceremony in New York City.
She appeared on the red carpet wearing a gown embroidered with drawings by Palestinian children affected by the ongoing war. The upcycled dress featured powerful imagery — a peace dove, a watermelon, a child feeding a cat beside a bowl marked hope, and the names of each young artist stitched in Arabic.
“Tonight I am wearing this beautiful dress that has art from kids in Gaza, and these kids are just amazing,” Ms Rachel said during her acceptance speech. “They’re so thoughtful and so brilliant, and I’m so proud of them.”
The children, including Rana, Rahaf, Luna, Ahmed, Anne, Sarah and Shahed, created the designs that told their stories through colour and symbolism.
Ms Rachel concluded her speech by sharing a message from Rana, who lost her two sisters in an air strike. “Rana wanted to say, ‘My sisters are not numbers. They are moons. They shine and sparkle,’” she said tearfully, receiving a standing ovation from the audience.
According to Glamour Magazine, Ms Rachel personally requested the children to create art that reflected their experiences. “She knows the meaning behind each drawing,” the outlet noted, adding that all children received donations from her.
On the red carpet, Ms Rachel said she was “carrying their stories in her heart” and that the children were thrilled to see their art reach a global stage.
Her advocacy began after meeting Rahaf, a three-year-old amputee from Gaza who lost both legs in an air strike. “Seeing Rahaf made me realise that the kids in Gaza are like my own,” she said in an earlier interview. “A mother once said, ‘Thank you for seeing our children as human.’ It broke my heart that she had to thank me for that.”
Following the awards, Ms Rachel announced on Instagram that she was unsubscribing from The New York Times, criticising its “biased and dehumanising coverage of Palestinians and Palestine” and its “failure to uphold journalistic integrity.”
She also highlighted a leaked internal memo that allegedly instructed journalists to avoid using words such as genocide, massacre and occupied territory when reporting on Gaza. Captioning her post “Words matter,” she emphasised the responsibility of the media in shaping global perception.
Ms Rachel has consistently spoken out against the war in Gaza, focusing her advocacy on the welfare of Palestinian children, thousands of whom have been killed since the conflict began.
In September, the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) appointed Ms Rachel as its global ambassador. The organisation praised her commitment to standing with vulnerable children in conflict zones.
With more than 17 million subscribers and 13 billion YouTube views, Ms Rachel has become one of the most influential voices in early education. Beyond entertainment, she uses her platform to highlight humanitarian causes and promote compassion through storytelling.
According to figures released by the Ministry of Health in Gaza on October 7, 2025, at least 20,179 children have been killed since the war began — roughly one child every 52 minutes.
Of these, 1,029 were infants under one year old, 5,031 were under five, and 420 were born and killed during the conflict.
More than 1.2 million children are deprived of food, while 58,554 have been orphaned. The UN Commission of Inquiry has formally declared Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide.
Over 9,14,000 children are denied education, and 5,580 are awaiting medical evacuation. Vaccination coverage has dropped from 98.7 percent in 2022 to 80 percent in 2025, and at least 1,102 children have undergone amputations due to injuries sustained in air strikes.
