George Clooney raised 2.25 million US dollars to Syrian refugee children

APD NEWS

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Hollywood actor, George Clooney's foundation would contribute 2.25 million U.S dollars to sponsor the opening of seven public schools in Lebanon, which could help over 3,000 out-of-school Syrian refugee children back to school this academic year.

This project was disclosed by its partners, including Google.org, HP and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF ). HP supported the project with one million U.S dollar technology grant and Google.org made a generous donation as well.

UNICEF released a press release on Monday quoting the superstar and his wife, Amal Clooney: "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."

Lebanon's Minister of Education, Marwan Hamade said "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 forJustice (CFJ) is therefore a crucial investment in future generations in Lebanon," according to UNICEEF's website.

Clooney and his wife later expressed: "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."

Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, millions of families fled the war zones and many children were out of school. Currently there are over one million Syrian refugees registered in Lebanon, with a third of list being children.

Clooney established the Clooney Foundation for Justice in 2016 with his wife, who was born in Lebanon. The couple just welcomed their newborn twins.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)