Telethon to aid Palestinians kicks off

A special telethon, organized by Maldivian media stations to aid Palestinians in besieged Gaza, kicked off on Tuesday, as the humanitarian crisis in the narrow coastal territory escalates.

The one-day telethon, titled ‘Aharemen Falasdheenaaeku’ – which translates to ‘We are with Palestine’ – kicked off at 10:30 am, and will continue until midnight.

TV stations had been holding pre-shows for the telethon from 05:00 pm to 06:00 pm since Saturday.

The telethon is organized by the International Aid Campaign (IAC), in collaboration with Maldivian medias.

The telethon will run on a number of Maldivian TV channels, including TVM, SSTV, Dhivehi Channel, Channel 13, VTV, ICE TV, CNM, Vaguthu TV, Next, and Muizzu TV.

Online news outlets, including Sun Online, One Online and Voice, have also joined the telethon.

The main goal of the telethon is to raise awareness on the plight of Palestinians, and raise funds to assist them.

IAC has raised over MVR 9 million since it issued its appeal for donations on last week.

The opportunity to make donations remains open.

• Bank Name: Bank of Maldives (BML):
• Account Name: International Aid Campaign
• Account Number: 7770000062741 (MVR)

More than 2,800 people – about half of them children and women – have been killed in relentless Israeli bombardment on Gaza since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.