Rihanna on Helping Raise Billions for Education: 'Our Work Is Never Done'

Rihanna and French president Emmanuel Macron attended a Global Partnership for Education fundraising conference.

February 5, 2018

Rihanna, named one of 2017's most charitable celebrities, recently helped raise more than $2 billion for global education.

Rihanna and French president Emmanuel Macron were on hand for a Global Partnership for Education (GPE) fundraising conference Friday in Senegal, ABC Newsreported. World Bank president Jim Yong Kim and multiple African heads of stat were also in attendance.

"We've made tremendous progress today, but of course, our work is never done," Rihanna, a GPE ambassador, said when addressing the conference to "cheers and whistles" from the crowd. "We have a long way to go and this is a fight that we're never going to stop fighting until every boy and every girl has access to education."

According to a tweet from the official account of Rihanna's Clara Lionel Foundation, Friday's efforts resulted in $2.3 billion raised for global education.

The Clara Lionel Foundation (named after Rihanna's grandparents) was started back in 2012 as a way to support funding for "effective education, health, and emergency response programs" around the world. The right to quality education, the foundation says on its website, should be viewed as "a weapon against injustice and inequality."

Rihanna previously met with Macron in Paris in July after tweeting at him and other world leaders for their commitment to help fund education efforts.