"This pandemic will affects us all."

Rihanna's Clara Lionel Foundation has pledged to donate $5 million to Covid-19 efforts around the world. In a statement, the organisation said that they had always been one of the first responders when it came to natural disasters the world was unprepared for. "When we first began this year, never could we have imagined how COVID-19 would so dramatically alter our lives," they 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 will be donating $5 million to groups including Direct Relief, Feeding America, and The World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund in a bid to accelerate testing, provide food and supplies to underprivileged areas, and supply equipment to frontline healthcare workers. "We know that one of the most powerful weapons we have against COVID-19 is preparedness," they said. "Protecting our frontline health workers and marginalized communities around the world requires getting ahead of it FAST. The time to act is now." Founded in 2012 in honour of her grandparents, Clara and Lionel, Rihanna's foundation has in the past donated relief to countries in the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa. The foundation usually deals in natural disasters but the recent coronavirus outbreak has directed their efforts elsewhere. This comes after Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds announced that they were pledging $1m to food banks in the US and Canada. Singer Ciara also has also donated one million meals to FoodLine, an organising providing “food to more than 300 food banks, shelters and meal programs across Western Washington.”