Pop star, fashion icon and entrepreneur Rihanna is doing her part to aid those most in need as a result of the spreading coronavirus pandemic that has stopped life in its tracks everywhere.
Rihanna, 32, is donating $5 million dollars through her Clara Lionel Foundation to support and protect ‘frontline health workers and marginalized communities’.
The money will help ‘to immediately mobilize a broad response working with on-the-ground partners’ that include Feeding America, The World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and the International Rescue Committee, among others.
Rihanna, born Robyn Rihanna Fenty, pledged the significant monetary support in order to help food banks that serve at-risk communities as well as the elderly in the United States, along with bolstering testing and care facilities in countries like Haiti and Malawi.
The website for the Clara Lionel Foundation, which was named for Riri’s grandparents Clara and Lionel Braithwaite, also states the monies will be used for ‘the mobilization of resources and additional capacity and support for Native communities.’
Healthcare workers at the frontlines of dealing with the widespread illness, many of whom have already fallen ill, were also included in the list of those supported by Rihanna’s contribution.
They will be given protective equipment, as well as assistance in the establishment and maintenance of intensive care units.
The website also prioritizes developing a vaccine for the virus as well as other curative therapies as one of the causes the foundation will support through this donation.
Finally, ‘healthcare worker training, virus prevention and containment,’ and ‘distribution of critical respiratory supplies’ are also part of the Clara Lionel Foundation’s plan to help aid in the fight.
The organization’s executive director Justine Lucas told TMZ, ‘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.’
Rihanna founded the Clara Lionel Foundation in 2012, primarily to support and greatly improve emergency response programs around the world.
The Foundation hosts the annual Diamond Ball charity fundraiser gala, the fifth edition of which saw Rihanna in attendance last September along with the likes of Seth Meyers, Pharrell Williams, DJ Khaled, Fat Joe, G-Eazy, Megan Thee Stallion and many more.
Rihanna’s charity has a dedicated site where those interested may help fight the pandemic by contributing as well.
