Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively Donate $2 Million to Support Migrant Children’s Rights
By Justin Kroll
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds donated $2 million to NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights.
Their aid will help protect the rights of immigrant children separated from their families, as well as support efforts to advance social justice.
“We’re blown away by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the Young Center’s commitment to not only justice and democracy, but humanity,” Lively and Reynolds said in a statement. “Over the last few years, our perspective has grown and we’ve realized we have to do everything possible to foster more compassion and empathy in this world. History’s being written right now. We’re grateful to give back to organizations who give voice to so many.”
The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights is the only nonprofit in the nation providing independent Child Advocates to unaccompanied and separated immigrant children in detention. The Waymaker Fund, created with the donation from Lively and Reynolds, will provide essential financial support to the Young Center’s Child Advocate program and ensure that attorneys, social workers, and volunteers defend the rights and best interests of immigrant children who migrate to the United States by themselves or have been forcibly taken from their parents. The Fund will also help to fight the administration’s continued attacks on immigrant children’s rights and advocate for an immigration system that recognizes children’s unique needs.
“We are so deeply grateful for this extraordinary gift from Blake and Ryan,” said Maria Woltjen, executive director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. “Their donation will help ensure that the most vulnerable immigrant children — who are in detention facing deportation — will have an advocate to protect their rights and their best interests.”
Woltjen continued, “Children are escaping rampant violence and persecution to seek safe haven in the U.S. The Waymaker Fund for Immigrant Children, created with this gift, is needed now more than ever We are so moved by Blake and Ryan’s kindness.”
