The Whakatāne Lyceum Club is hosting a fundraising event to support families in Gaza.

All proceeds from the event will be donated to ReliefAid, an independent and impartial organisation that delivers emergency aid to people affected by conflict.

ReliefAid has an office in Whakatane, and is active in Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan, and Gaza, where its volunteers and workers are providing essential food and water to families in need.

The fundraiser is on at The Lyceum Club on the evening of Friday, August 30, and will highlight the impactful work of ReliefAid and feature a presentation by Dr Sameh Shamout, a Palestinian-Jordanian architect, artist, and lecturer at Unitec in New Zealand. Dr Shamout, known for blending performing arts with architecture, will share his projects, including the Window of Palestine.

Since November 2023, ReliefAid has been actively delivering emergency aid to families in Gaza amid an escalating humanitarian crisis, said ReliefAid’s communications director Anne Bulley.

The ongoing conflict had devastated the region, with nearly 40,000lives lost and countless homes destroyed, she said, and critical infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and essential resources, has been severely impacted, leaving families in urgent need of support.

“ReliefAid has already provided food and clean drinking water to over 300,000 people in Gaza. As the crisis deepens, sourcing and distributing these essentials becomes increasingly difficult,” said Ms Bulley. “We are currently distributing 15,000 litres of treated drinking water, sourced from boreholes in Gaza, a day to displaced families. The lines for water grow longer each day, and every delivery is a lifeline that prevents families from going thirsty or risking illness from untreated water.

“We are enormously grateful to the Lyceum Club for hosting this fundraising event,” she said. “Every dollar raised really does make a difference. It costs approximately 67 cents to provide safe water to one person, meaning just $20 can support 28 individuals.

“Although our contributions may seem like a drop in the ocean, given the scale of the crisis, seeing a child drink clean water from a container filled from our trucks underscores how vital each drop truly is.”

What: ReliefAid fundraiser for work in Gaza

Where: Lyceum Club Rooms, 58 Domain Road, Whakatane

When: 6.30pm, Friday, August 30

Tickets: $40 includes a light supper and a glass (or two) of wine, from The Good Life, 160 The Strand, (cash only) or by depositing to the Whakatane Lyceum Club bank account: 02-0488-0027900-000 Reference: Name and Relief. (Tickets will be held at the door.)