A HAMMERSMITH teenager has called on Andy Slaughter MP to champion children’s rights in Gaza following an exhibition in Parliament.

Hanifa Islam, 18, was one of 20 teenagers co-hosting the event with Hammersmith MP Mr Slaughter which showed a collection of drawings from children in the troubled Middle-Eastern region, highlighting their hopes and fears.

Children in both Gaza and south Israel penned scenes of playgrounds, the sea and nature but also the violence they have experienced.

After the event Miss Islam took part in a telephone conversation with the pupils who had also exhibited the drawings in Al Zarqa where they live. One of the poorest areas of the Gaza Strip, it was damaged during operation Cast Lead in 2009 with Oxfam helping the community to re-build.

Miss Islam, of Greyhound Road, a politics student at London Metropolitan University and Oxfam volunteer, said: “There was quite a positive reaction to the exhibition and I really hope there’s a change for these children.

"The issue of Gaza always has a political focus and often the children are ignored, but they are the ones who are suffering. This exhibition is a way of helping these children get their voices heard. Talking to the children was really moving. What they say is completely different from children in the UK because their lives are so complex.”

Mr Slaughter, shadow justice minister who has visited Gaza numerous times, said: “The children of Gaza have to suffer what no children should have to put up with and what people in Britain would find difficult to imagine.

"It is a brilliant initiative to bring the world of these children to the UK through paintings and drawings.”

Hanifa, 18, of Greyhound Road, is now asking young people in Hammersmith and Fulham to write messages on postcards of the pictures, which will be given to Foreign Secretary William Hague.