From Mali to Gaza, and Afghanistan to India, children are taking centre stage.

As well as throwing celebrations this weekend Islamic Relief offices around the world are using Universal Children’s Day (on November 20) to highlight children’s rights.

In Gaza, hundreds of children have taken part in events, creating handprints carrying messages about their need for better education, healthcare and protection.

Mohammed Abu Moharram, manager of Islamic Relief’s child welfare program in Gaza, said: “The main objective is to draw the world’s attention to the Palestinian children who suffer from difficult psychological and social conditions as a result of the loss of their fundamental rights guaranteed by international conventions such as the right to security, education, health and the right to play.

“We left space for children to express their dreams and aspirations by using tools they like, such as drawing and painting, and calling for intensified local and international efforts for improving the situation of children in the Gaza Strip.”

Our office in Mali is inviting 100 orphans and their guardians for a tour of Bamako National Park and a day of games while 50 orphans in the West Bank and 150 children in Kosova will join a day of outdoor activities.

In Afghanistan we are celebrating in the provinces of Nangarhar and Bamyan where we have ongoing education programmes, and a series of events will take place across four states of India including fancy dress, treasure hunts and a picnic at a historic monument.

A healthcare programme has provided under-10s with life-changing cleft palate surgery.

The project in Jordan is part of the £945,000 (€1.1 million) emergency healthcare programme reaching out to Jordanians and Syrian refugees.

Working with Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) Islamic Relief has provided specialist surgical interventions for 13 children, from three months to 10 years old, with a cleft lip or cleft palate.

Fatem, the mother of the youngest child, said: “Ahmad was born with a unilateral cleft lip and a bilateral cleft palate. My first question to his dad was, ‘How bad is it?’ His response was, ‘You will see’ and he had a very sad face which frightened me. I was so scared.

“Finally I saw my baby and he was the most beautiful perfect little baby I had ever seen.

“His screaming was like music to my ears and I couldn’t wait to get back to our room just to hold him.

“The first few weeks of his life were full of chaos. It was nothing but doctor’s appointments, trying to figure out the best method to feed him, cleaning him and trying to minimize any chance of infection.

“I made it work regardless of the challenges.

“I am also alone in my struggle because his dad decided to file for divorce. He blamed the genetics on my side of the family for causing Ahmad’s cleft lip.

“Ahmad is now three months old. The hardest part of this whole situation is that my baby will undergo several surgeries to correct his cleft lip and require years of speech therapy and surgical revisions.

“Ahmad may never look like other kids, but to me he has always been perfect and he always will be.”

More than 6 million people in Malawi need humanitarian aid following the effects of El Nino.

Reduced rainfall and above average temperatures in Malawi have left 40% of the country hungry.

Female subsistence farmers are most vulnerable as they don’t always have access to land or equipment.

Meliya Beka is one of 9,080 people in Chikwawa District, Malawi, to receive a three-month food pack from Islamic Relief.

She said: “This year I tried to plant drought-resistant millet but still I am empty-handed.

“I did not harvest a single bag of food. Sometimes I think that if I had a man, he would at least know what to do.

“I go into the bush and look for wild tubers to cook for the children when they come back from school. If I don’t find any we go to bed hungry.”

In Meliya’s district 90% of the rural population are at risk of food insecurity and in the areas Islamic Relief is reaching out to (including Traditional Authority Chapananga, where Meliya lives) 39,720 people are currently food insecure.

Islamic Relief is supporting women farmers by equipping them with sustainable irrigation systems, training, animal husbandry and fish farming.