LOS ANGELES: International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and her actor husband George announced Tuesday that their Clooney Foundation for Justice is donating $1 million to the U.S. based Southern Poverty Law Center, which combats hate groups in the U.S. They wanted to “add their voices and financial assistance to the fight for equality. There are no two sides to bigotry and hate” a statement from Clooney read. The Southern Poverty Law Center monitors the activities of hate groups and has used litigation to win against white supremacist organizations. Last month, the Clooney Foundation donated a little over $2 million to support the education of Syrian refugee children in Lebanon.
They have teamed up with UNICEF and the Lebanese Education Ministry to open seven public schools. These “second shift” schools also include special afternoon classes for refugees.
This donation allows 3,000 Syrian refugee children access to education in Lebanon this year alone.
“We don’t want to lose an entire generation because they had the bad luck of being born in the wrong place at the wrong time. Thousands of young Syrian refugees are at risk – the risk of never being a productive part of society. They have been victims of geography and circumstance, but that doesn’t mean there is no hope. Our goal with this initiative is to provide Syrian refugee children with an education and put them on a path to be the future leaders their generation desperately needs” the couple said.
According to the monitoring group Human Rights Watch, last year there was some 250,000 school aged Syrian children in Lebanon. |