Rihanna
Don’t take school for granted.
This was Rihanna’s advice to young people all over the world who may have yet to fully realize the importance of having quality education.
“Growing up in Barbados, I didn’t always love school,” the pop star wrote in an opinion column in The Guardian. “It can feel like a grind, especially when you would rather be singing, playing sports or doing pretty much anything other than homework.”
But now, Rihanna has realized just how fortunate she was to have education at all. Not everyone is blessed with such privilege.
“Education can be stolen from you in a second. As we have seen recently on an unprecedented scale, the Caribbean gets hit by natural disasters that wipe out schools, leaving thousands of children stranded,” she said, adding that such problems as poverty, sexism, conflict and bad policy prevent kids elsewhere from getting education.
These challenges, she said, have inspired her to prioritize education on her list of philanthropic work.
Rihanna is currently an ambassador for the Global Partnership for Education, which helps give children in 87 countries access to education.
Her very own Clara Lionel Foundation, meanwhile, “funds programs” and “removes barriers to education” by giving financial assistance “to children and their communities.”
“The lack of access to education for children around the world is a massive problem, but that doesn’t mean we should throw up our hands in despair and surrender,” Rihanna said. “Instead, we need to take on as much of the challenge as we can manage, to set an example and see the difference.”—ALLAN POLICARPIO