Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Foundation Donates $5 Million To Fight COVID-19

The Clara Lionel Foundation, Rihanna’s education and emergency relief nonprofit, announced Saturday (March 21) that it has donated $5 million toward COVID-19 response efforts.

The donation will benefit on-the-ground partners including Direct Relief, Feeding America, Partners in Health, The World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, the International Rescue Committee.

Funds will support local food banks serving at-risk communities in the U.S., the acceleration of testing and care in countries like Haiti and Malawi, and the mobilization of resources and support for Native Communities.

The donation will also help provide protective equipment for health workers and diagnostic labs, help establish and maintain intensive care units, and accelerate the development of vaccines and other therapies. Healthcare worker training, virus prevention and containment in countries on the front lines of the COVID-19 response will receive funding as well, the organization said.

“It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from, this pandemic will affect us all. And for the world’s most vulnerable, the worst may be yet to come,” the group wrote in a statement. “Protecting our front line health workers and marginalized communities around the world requires getting ahead of it FAST. The time to act is now.”

The singer and businesswoman started the foundation in 2012 in honor of her grandparents, Clara and Lionel Braithwaite. CLF currently runs educational programs in Malawi, Barbados and Senegal, emergency response programs in the Caribbean and around the globe, and has the Clara Lionel Foundation Global Scholarship Program.

Rihanna joins a growing list of celebrities and public figures who have made donations to combat COVID-19. Singer Ciara and husband, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, donated one million meals to Food Lifeline, which provides “food to more than 300 food banks, shelters and meal programs across Western Washington.” Actress Blake Lively and husband Ryan Reynolds donated $1 million, which will be split between hunger relief organizations Feeding America in the U.S. and Food Banks Canada.