Rihanna's foundation donates $5M to fight coronavirus, songstress to buy ventilators worth $700k for Barbados
The coronavirus pandemic has left the whole world shaken up and with the numbers increasing every day, people have been coming together to make sure that they are following the government advice and staying at home. Despite this, when one looks at the numbers, it is hard to tell if it is working.
At a time when the government needs to bring in more supplies to fight this pandemic, celebrities have been coming forward with whatever help they can. The latest addition to this list of celebrities is singer Rihanna, who has come forward and donated $5M through her Clara Lionel Foundation to fight coronavirus.
The money would be used to help the people who have lost their loved ones during this pandemic. The Clara Lionel Foundation's website states that the money will be divided among Direct Relief, Feeding America, World Health Organization's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, Partners in Health and International Rescue Committee among others.
With these funds, the foundation hopes that they can serve food banks to high-risk places while also making sure that the elderly population has the supply too. It also hopes to "acceleration testing and care in countries like Haiti and Malawi, as well as the mobilization of resources and additional capacity and support for Native communities".
The foundation also hopes to help the medical staff by providing "protective equipment for frontline health workers and diagnostic labs, the establishment and maintenance of intensive care units, and acceleration of the development of vaccines and other therapies across the globe".
One of the essential things that the foundation is set to do is the "distribution of critical respiratory supplies".
Apart from this, the singer is also helping out by buying $700k worth of ventilators for Barbados. The news was announced by the Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley. Rihanna has been involved with the country ever since she became Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary' in 2018. There is also a street named after the singer and is called "Rihanna Drive". It was the street where she lived until the age of 16.
The coronavirus pandemic is slowly taking over the world. To date, more than three lakh cases have been confirmed all over the world with no signs of the numbers reducing.
During this time, various celebrities have come together and trie to uplift the spirits of people who have been in quarantine. Stars such as Gal Gadot, Kylie Jenner and Arnold Schwarzenegger have all been sharing words of motivation on their social media. Meanwhile, stars like Blake Lively, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber have also made donations to help with the pandemic.