Musician Rihanna is not yet done with Malawi.
This time her attention has moved to girls.
The iconic singer has now partnered with bike-sharing company Ofo to provide better access to education for girls across Malawi, international media reports say.
According to reports, the exercise has already commenced in Malawi.
According to time.com, the Barbados born artist has penned a five year deal with her Clara Lionel Foundation and Ofo, a prominent bike-sharing platform based in China.
The partnership called “1 KM Action” will donate bikes to scholarship recipients.
“They’re expected to help alleviate the challenges of attending school in Malawi, where the drop-out rates are exceedingly high; only 8 percent of students complete secondary school, with girls especially finding themselves at a disadvantage. There are approximately 4.6 million primary-school-age children in Malawi, according to the Foundation, and transportation across long distances is an issue,” a time.com article reads.
Rihanna is quoted as saying: “I’m so happy about the Clara Lionel Foundation’s new partnership with Ofo because it will help so many young people around the world receive a quality education, and also help the young girls of Malawi get to school safely, cutting down those very long walks they make to and from school all alone.”
Two months ago, the musician set out an international call to her fans to join her to help raise $3.1 billion from donors and developed countries to cater for education of children in developing countries like Malawi.
Rihanna who is founder of the Clara Lionel Foundation and ambassador for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) visited Malawi in January this year and among other activities, she interacted with students at Lilongwe Girls Secondary school.
The singer had indicated that the funds realised would help GPE bring quality education to over 870 million children in 89 countries between 2018 and 2020.
In 2016, Rihanna formed a partnership with GPE, the only global fund exclusively focused on education in developing countries.
Proud of you ‘Rihanna’ for having that courtesy action toward our girls in Malawi……….