Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Foundation Donates $5 Million to Coronavirus Response and Relief
Rihanna's Clara Lionel Foundation has donated $5 million to charities aiding in the coronavirus pandemic.
The 32-year-old's foundation made the announcement in a press release on Saturday (March 21). "Never has it been more important or urgent to protect and prepare marginalized and underserved communities -- those who will be hit hardest by this pandemic," Justine Lucas, Executive Director of the Clara Lionel Foundation said in the release.
The funds will support Direct Relief, Partners In Health, Feeding America, the International Rescue Committee, World Health Organization’s (WHO) COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund benefitting those in need in the United States, Africa and the Caribbean.
The foundation's Instagram account shared an image and said that the funds will help "prepare communities [with] critical protective gear, medical supplies, equipment and access to food across multiple countries and regions."
The singer's foundation was launched in 2012 and named after her grandparents, Clara and Lionel Braithwaite. The foundation seeks to support education initiatives and emergency response and preparedness in the Caribbean and Africa.
Aside from her foundation's generosity, Rihanna herself reportedly offered to purchase $700,000 US (1.4 million Barbados dollars) worth of ventilators for her home country of Barbados. The country currently has six cases of COVID-19.
See the announcement, below.