Rihanna declares war on COVID-19

Barbadian singing superstar Rihanna says her Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF) is expanding support for the COVID-19 global response.

CLF said it has collaborated with Twitter & Square Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey and Jay-Z’s Shawn Carter Foundation (SCF) in releasing US$6.2 million in grants for COVID-19 rapid response efforts in the US and the Caribbean, among other places.

It said the grants, distributed across 11 organisations, will support efforts that include providing shelter, food and healthcare services to homeless youth in New Orleans, to building virus-testing capacity across the Caribbean and the set-up of intensive care units (ICUs), hospital beds and isolation units in sub-Saharan Africa, among others.

For the Caribbean specifically, the funds will provide direct relief to support purchasing of testing cartridges to build COVID-19 testing capacity in St Lucia, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, and Antigua and Barbuda.

In the United States and Puerto Rico, it said the funds will, among other things, give direct support of cash transfers to low-income families in the mainland US, as well as in Puerto Rico; and support the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, to support the mayor’s office to end domestic and gender-based violence so as “to support domestic violence survivors who need a capital injection to ensure their safety and stability during COVID-19”.