George Clooney, Amal Clooney Send 3,000 Syrian Refugees To School In Lebanon
George Clooney and Amal Clooney have pledged to send 3,000 Syrian refugee children to school in Lebanon this year. The Clooney Foundation for Justice partnered with Google and HP Inc. to help UNICEF and the Lebanese Ministry of Education build "second shift" schools for refugee children.
The call answers to the refugee problem in Lebanon, where the United Nations claims 200,000 children are not able to receive education after escaping Syria.
According to The Guardian, the "second shift" system will allow refugee children to attend afternoon classes at seven public schools. These classes are exclusively opened for refugee children.
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This partnership will also help advance innovative technology in classrooms to help develop the education system in Lebanon for all children.
Clooney Foundation for Justice, Google and HP donated a total of $3.25 million, which will be used to fund computers, school supplies, transportation, teacher training and setting up the curriculum for the classes.
"Thousands of young Syrian refugees are at risk - the risk of never being a productive part of society. Formal education can help change that," Amal and George Clooney said in a statement, as quoted by The Telegraph.
The move is also closely related to Amal's work as a human rights lawyer. In 2016, she represented ISIS survivor Nadia Murad on behalf of the victims of the Yazidi genocide. The cause is also close to Amal's heart as she herself is Lebanese. Her family moved from Lebanon to Britain when she was still two years old to escape the Lebanese Civil War.
In June this year, Amal and George Clooney welcomed the birth of their twins, Alexander and Ella. The couple recently filed a lawsuit against an Italian newspaper for illegally taking photographs of their children and publishing them without their knowledge and consent. No official photograph of the twins has been revealed yet, but friends and family described the kids as having a good mix of both Amal and George's features.
