Rihanna has offered to pay 1.4 million Barbados dollars (or a little over £600,000) towards the country’s response to the coronavirus. The proposed money would go towards ventilators used to treat victims of the pandemic.
As of today, the island has reported six COVID-19 cases.
The singer/philanthropist has strong ties to her home country. Back in 2018, she was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary for the Barbadian government, having served as a cultural ambassador since 2008.
More recently (February 22), she was also recognised for her activism and philanthropy at the NAACP Image Awards, where she received the President’s Award. In her acceptance speech, she called for intersectional unity, saying: “‘If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that we can only fix this world together.”
Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Foundation has additionally donated over $4 million to worldwide coronavirus relief in the last day. This will also go towards providing medical equipment, as well as helping food banks, the elderly, and other at-risk communities.