Rihanna Spent Her Weekend Getting In Touch With World Leaders – And This Is Why

It all started with a message from her grandmother.

Many people don’t know it but Rihanna is much more than a singer and actress. The 29-year-old is heavily involved in humanitarian work and is particularly passionate about ensuring that all children have access to education, regardless of class, nationality or gender.

Over the weekend, the star spent some time getting in touch with world leaders on Twitter to request their help to fund education in third world countries.

She called on the presidents of France and Argentina, as well as the prime minister of Canada and German officials to recommit to previous promises of funding for education services in Malawi.

The Work singer has been working closely with Global Partnership, an organisation that supports developing countries to ensure that every child receives a quality basic education, prioritising the poorest and most vulnerable.

With more than 74 million followers on Twitter, Rihanna has called these leaders out in front of such a large audience that they couldn’t possibly ignore her, and so two of the leaders quickly responded to declare their support for the cause.

Earlier this year, Harvard University named RiRi as its Humanitarian of the Year for 2017, and during her acceptance speech she revealed it was her grandmother who encouraged her to help others.

Speaking about her younger years, Rihanna said, “I would say to myself, when I grow up, when I can get rich, I’m going to save kids all over the world. I just didn’t know I would be in the position to do that by the time I was a teenager.

“You don’t have to be rich to be a humanitarian. You don’t have to be rich to help somebody. You don’t gotta be famous. You don’t even have to be college-educated…

“It starts with your neighbour, the person right next to you. You just do whatever you can to help in any way that you can. All you need to do is help one person, expecting nothing in return. To me, that is a humanitarian.

“My grandmother always used to say, ‘If you’ve got a dollar, there’s plenty to share.’”

To see the work Rihanna does for children in Malawi, check out the video below.