Clooney Foundation Donates $2.25 Million to Build Schools for Syrian Refugees

By Amanda Froelich

Thanks to actor George Clooney and his wife Amal, Syrian refugee children who have faced unimaginable hardship will receive an education. This is because the Clooney Foundation for Justice agreed to donate $2.25 million to build 7 public schools, which will educate approximately 3,000 refugee children in Lebanon.

The donation was made as part of an educational campaign in partnership with Google and Unicef. The ultimate goal is to provide relief to children and their families during one of the most arduous humanitarian crises since WWII.

The couple said in a statement to AP: “They have been victims of geography and circumstance, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t hope. Our goal with this initiative is to help provide Syrian refugee children with an education and put them on a path to be the future leaders their generation desperately needs.”

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"Thousands of young Syrian refugees are at risk – the risk of never being a productive part of society. Formal education can help change that. That’s our goal with this initiative. 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," the Clooneys added.

In 2016, the United Nations (UN) identified 13.5 million Syrians requiring immediate humanitarian assistance. To this day, 6 million remain internally displaced within Syria and over 4.8 million are refugees outside of their home country. Understanding this, their contribution can only be considered remarkable -- and Lebanon’s Minister of Education, Marwan Hamade, agrees. He stated:

"The Government of Lebanon is profoundly grateful to the leadership of George and Amal Clooney and the Clooney Foundation for Justice. We are delighted the Clooney Foundation has decided to support our efforts to open the doors of more public schools to ensure we can offer every child currently living in Lebanon a free education. We are also looking forward to collaborating with the Clooney Foundation and its partners on advancing innovative technology in all our classrooms. Each child given access to education, and new ways of learning, represents a life changed for the better. Today’s grant from the Clooney Foundation for Justice is therefore a crucial investment in future generations in Lebanon.”

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