YouTube star of children, Mrs. Rachel, browed one day Tiktok when she met a video from Gaza that broke her. It showed a young boy, probably not older than five, who suffered from serious shock after bombing. His eyes are great in fear and he vibrates furiously.
“The look in his eyes has stayed in my mind since I saw the video,” says Mrs. Rachel, whose real name Rachel Accurso is, says The independent.
“A friendly doctor embraced him and told him that the bombing was over and he eventually broke into tears. No child can experience that kind of fear, shock and fear. '
That video was one of the many that Mrs. Rachel forced to speak out about a conflict that has a fiercely divided opinion in the US. In the coming months she would become one of the most prominent public proponents for children who were entangled in the war – but it also brought a return.
Mrs. Rachel, a former teacher from Maine, has built up an audience of more than 13 million subscribers on YouTube with her mix of educational videos and songs for young children. Parents worship her as a deity for the respite she gives them; Her clear, high intonation is the background music for households throughout the country.
Mrs. Rachel felt compelled to publicly plead for the children of Gaza (Netflix)
With billions of views on her channel, and millions more in Instagram and Tiktok, she is now on top of a flourishing empire with her own line toys and books, and on Monday her show debuted on Netflix. The New York Times called Her “this era of this era Rogers.”
In May last year, about seven months in Israel's war against Hamas, children played the victims of ruthless bombing. The United Nations estimate that some 14,500 children Was killed by intensive Israeli strikes about the Gaza Strip, with much more buried under the rubble. At least 1,000 children Had one or both legs amputated by injuries, more than 13,000 children suffered from malnutrition and round 17,000 Children were pointed.
Images of those atrocities filtered on on social media and to Mrs. Rachel's feed.
“I could not look away from the scale and gravity of suffering that I saw every day,” says Mrs. Rachel.
“I know how crucial the first years are for brain development and lifelong securities trauma and malnutrition on the brain. It is a failure of humanity to deny children, water, medical care, shelter and education and not to protect children against violence, “she adds.
Many careers are ruined and many public figures are banned for wading the Gaza conflict, but Mrs. Rachel says she felt a responsibility to use her fame forever.
“I would not be loyal to myself if I would not use that platform to pronounce for every child, everywhere,” she says.
She posted for the first time about the conflict in May last year to her 2 million Instagram followers, and announced that she would raise money on Cameo, the personalized video kit -app, for Save the Children's Emergency Fund for children in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan. Within a few hours she had picked up $ 50,000 with orders for 500 videos that she would personally record.
A few days later she succeeded a written message and stated that “children should never experience the horrors of war – nor killed, injured or hostage.”
The messages seemed designed to be as universal as possible, non-politics and are sufficiently focused to help in a practical way.
The vast majority of the comments was positive, but her messages brought a play.
“You should be for all children, not just the children in Gaza. You don't care what Hamas did all the innocent Jewish children on October 7 ??? “One Instagram remark among dozens of others said.
“What about the hostages? !!!! They make it possible, “another wrote before the comments were finally eliminated.
Those messages had a noticeable impact on the mostly cheerful educator of children. Days later, Mrs. Rachel posted a video of himself in almost darkness and in tears.
“Bullying is so bad. It's so bad. But I can handle this, ” said. “That's who I am. I love my neighbor. I love every child, “she added. “Imagine a second what a mother goes through is unable to feed her child or give her child clean water or to keep her child safe.”
“I care deep for all the children. Palestinian children, Israeli children, children in the US – Muslim, Jewish, Christian children – all children, in every country, “she wrote in the Caption for the Video.
Despite her clear suffering, Mrs. Rachel did not stop.
“I don't regret. I am guided by what is in my heart and my unwavering conviction that we owe our children more, “she says.
Children are in the midst of the rubble of a building struck by an Israeli air raid in Deir al-Balah in the middle of the Gaza Strip, on 13 May 2023 (AFP via Getty Images)
She placed a prayer song for children in Gaza and Israel and asked 'leaders and presidents' not to 'not hurt anymore'.
In another she described two babies in Gaza who were seriously malnourished.
“Their thighs are like this little one,” she said, a small circle with her fingers and stop tears.
“We can't let children starve, that's not who we are.”
Mrs. Rachel has also posted several times, calling for the return of Israeli children who were held hostage in Gaza, including two -year -old KFIR Bibas and his four -year -old brother Ariel.
The conflict in Gaza was caused by an attack in Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023, in which around 1200 Israelis were killed and another 251 people were held hostage. Israel's retaliation war from land and air, in addition to a blockade, has killed 45,000 Palestinians, of whom women and children, according to the health authorities in the besieged area. About 90 percent of the 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza are forced from their houses.
There is now a provisional cease -the fire agreement, but the situation is still devastating for children. The UN now believes that more than 13,000 children were killedAn estimated 25,000 injured and at least 25,000 in the hospital for malnutrition.
“A generation is traumatized,” Tom Fletcher, under-secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Aid Coordinator, told the UN Security Council last week.
“Children were killed, starved and frozen death. Some died before their first breath – perished with their mothers in the birth, “he added.
And Mrs. Rachel says that even if things are hopefully calmer with the cease -the fires, she feels forced to keep speaking to protect children who are struck by the war. “It's true,” she says. “It's human.”
Now she occasionally also receives better videos from Gaza. Earlier this month she shared a video sent to her on Instagram of four young children gathered around an iPad in a tent. They sat in silence while Mrs. Rachel sang and danced on the screen. The smile of a young girl beamed over her face.
“It's so sweet,” says Mrs. Rachel about the video. “I am as grateful as I can help them to bring them a little joy in the midst of such an immeasurable suffering. I want them to know that I love and cherish them, and so many others do that too. '
