Rihanna And Julia Gillard Visit Malawi’s Schools To Empower Impoverished Children

Rihanna and Julia Gillard are on a mission to give kids of Malawi a better education.

In partnership with Global Citizen and the Global Partnership for Education, Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Foundation traveled to the African country earlier this year to gain insight on the state of education in Malawi. Accompanied by Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans and former Australian prime minister and current GPE chair Julia Gillard, Rihanna visited schools and met with policymakers to advocate for better education opportunities for children.

During her trip, Rihanna also lead kids in a math lesson, empowering students with a chant. “I’m really here to see it,” the singer said in the video campaign launched by Global Citizen. “It’s one thing to read statistics, but I want to see it firsthand and find out all that can be done and where to start first.”

As the clip also highlights, a single teacher is often responsible for 100 students, many of whom don’t have proper access to food. Furthermore, classroom materials are often as scarce as school buildings, and this poor infrastructure puts young women at a disadvantage and forces many to make a lengthy and potentially dangerous walk to-and-from school each day. Despite these issues, the video is also packed with powerfully positive moments, including comments from an optimistic student at Muzu and a passionate young woman speaking out against arranged marriages.

The singer is calling on fans around the world to help donate to the Global Partnership for Education’s efforts to raise $3.1 billion to bring quality education to over 870 million children in 89 countries between 2018 and 2020.

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