Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne Johnson launch Maui wildfire fund
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prah Winfrey and Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson have launched a reduction fund with an preliminary donation of 10 million {dollars} (£7.9 million) to assist the individuals of Maui rebuild their lives following the lethal US wildfires.
The Hollywood duo have helped arrange the People’s Fund Of Maui which is able to permit donations to be despatched “directly” to residents whose homes were burned in fires that incinerated the town of Lahaina and killed more than 100 people.
TV star Winfrey, who can be a part-time resident, stated she was impressed to create the fund after studying in regards to the success of nation music veteran Dolly Parton and her My People Fund, set as much as provide monetary help to residents following the wildfires in Sevier County, Tennessee, in 2016.
Sharing a video with US actor Johnson on Instagram, Winfrey stated the pair had seen first hand the “devastating” impression of the fires and needed to discover a manner that will assure donations would go “directly into the hands of Lahaina residents”.
She stated: “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’.
“…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, who voiced the character of demigod Maui in Disney movie Moana, continued: “I know a lot of people out there, as Oprah and I have been finding, are having a hard time trusting where the money 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.”
Winfrey added: “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 1200 {dollars} per 30 days.