Showbiz
Narjas Zatat
Feb 19, 2018

Picture:
LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP/Getty Images
Altogether now: Happy Birthday Riri!
The Barbados singer and actor is 30 years old today.
Which gives us an excuse to recount one of the best things we think the icon has done recently: ask every single world leader to fund education.
Rihanna became an ambassador for the Global Partnership for Education – an international advocacy group which campaigns for children in poor countries to get a quality education - in 2016.
You might remember that she made swift use of her position, and last year one of the first things she did was make sure world leaders were pledging to the #fundeducation cause. One tweet at a time.
She contacted Argentina president Mauricio Macri
And Canada’s Justin Trudeau
As well as French President Emmanuel Macron
And the German government's head of press Steffen Seibert
Earlier this year, she pressed Theresa May to make a pledge as well:
What became of her efforts?
Over a year later, Rihanna co-hosted an international conference in Senegal to discuss the Global Partnership for Education, alongside Senegalese president Macky Sall and French president Emmanuel Macron.
Senegal, along with the help of Rihanna's tireless campaigning and countries who have pledged funds, raised "over $2.3bn (£1.6bn)".
She said:
We have made tremendous progress today, but of course our work is never done. We have a long way to go, and this is a fight we are never going to stop fighting, until every boy and every girl has access to education.
The goal for the Global Partnership conference is to raise $3.1bn (£2.2bn) from donors by 2020 to support education of 870 million children across 80 developing countries.
Well done Rihanna.
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