George Clooney and his buddies have recently demonstrated their skill at placing their earned bucks where their mouths are.
The association he had established alongside Ocean’s Eleven cast mates Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and Don Cheadle and producer Jerry Weintraub to increase consciousness and assist the humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region has donated half a million dollars to the United Nations World Food Program.
Not On Our Watch has accumulated more than $9.3 million for Darfur from the time when it was launched less than a year ago. More than 200,000 natives have been slain and another 2.5 million relocated as an effect of the current civil clash between Sudanese government-backed Arab militias and ethnic rebel tribes.
Since visiting the conflicted area a couple of years back with his dad, Nick, Clooney has taken advantage his celebrity status with just about all and sundry to rally the U.S. government, the U.N. and his fellow stars to support the cause.
The half a million dollars will be bestowed to the WFP’s Humanitarian Air Service, which organizes the plane and helicopter trips that bears essential provisions and relief personnel into the region. On a regular basis, 8,000 relief workers from an assortment of nongovernmental organizations and charities go back and forth from the region each month.
“This is a critical time for the program,” Clooney, whose cluster also gave $1 million to the WFP in 2007, advised that. “Without immediate additional funding, humanitarian aid in the region will be crippled. “
“We are proud to help ensure the survival of this lifesaving program and strongly encourage others to do the same. Protection of these victims should not fall solely in the hands of charitable organizations. Governments have a responsibility to help those who cannot defend themselves.”
The Rome-established WFP supplies as many as 3.2 million populace in Darfur in 2007, as per numbers presented by the agency, which advised previously this week that the flight program was threatening to shut down at the end of this month because of donations deficiency.
“Having seen firsthand the epic humanitarian challenge in Darfur, George Clooney and his colleagues know the lifesaving power of the Humanitarian Air Service,” Josette Sheeran, WFP executive director announced.
“This contribution will make a difference to the millions of vulnerable women and children trapped there, and we hope it will inspire other donations.”
