Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne Johnson create Maui aid fund after Hawaii wildfires and kick it off with $10m
Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne Johnson have donated $10m (£7.9m) to a Maui aid fund they’ve created, to assist these affected by lethal wildfires in Hawaii.
The Hollywood stars say donations for the People’s Fund Of Maui shall be despatched “directly” to residents who’re attempting to rebuild their properties following the fires, which have killed at least 114 people.
The wildfires, which fully destroyed the city of Lahaina, are the deadliest within the US in additional than a century.
Winfrey is a part-time resident of Maui whereas Johnson, additionally recognized by his former ring identify as The Rock, who’s of Samoan descent, lived in Hawaii as a toddler. He went on to voice the character of demigod Maui in Disney movie Moana.
Winfrey mentioned she was impressed to create the fund after studying concerning the success of nation music veteran Dolly Parton and her My People Fund, set as much as supply monetary help to residents following the wildfires in Sevier County, Tennessee, in 2016.
Sharing a video alongside Johnson on Instagram, Winfrey mentioned the pair had seen first-hand the “devastating” affect of the fires and needed to discover a means that may assure donations would go “directly into the hands of Lahaina residents”.
She mentioned: “We were so concerned about what was happening in Maui that we were texting back and forth and I read this article that Dolly Parton had given money in her community and I said ‘I think this is the answer’.”
She went on: “So, we have created the People’s Fund Of Maui that will put money directly in the hands of the people who need it right now. If you send a donation… that money is going to go to one of many residents who have been displaced in Maui, we guarantee.”
Johnson, together with his arm round Winfrey’s shoulder, continued: “I do know lots of people on the market, as Oprah and I’ve been discovering, are having a tough time trusting the place the cash goes.
“It is a clean direct from you to their hands, and right away with some real immediacy because as we’re finding, as you guys around the world know, with disasters like this the number one need is money in hand.”
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Winfrey went on: “People being able to have their own agency, being able to make decisions for themselves about what they need and what their family needs, that’s our goal – to get that to the people now.”
The fund, a part of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, will permit each resident over the age of 18 who misplaced their “primary residence” within the wildfires to use for $1,200 monthly.
It’s accessible to householders and renters, however to not house owners who didn’t dwell within the buildings that have been destroyed.