Rihanna is Harvard's Humanitarian of the Year

Rihanna will officially accept the prestigious Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award on Tuesday, February 28th from Harvard University. The honour recognizes Rihanna’s charitable work and humanitarian efforts like funding a cancer treatment centre in Barbados, helping make education accessible to those in need in addition to helping international students pay for schooling in the U.S. through a dedicated scholarship fund.

Neuroscience professor and the director of the Harvard Foundation, S. Allen Counter, pretty much sums it up,

“Rihanna has charitably built a state-of-the-art center for oncology and nuclear medicine to diagnose and treat breast cancer at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Bridgetown, Barbados… She has also created the Clara Lionel Foundation Scholarship for students attending college in the U.S. from Caribbean countries, and supports the Global Partnership for Education and Global Citizen Project, a multiyear campaign that will provide children with access to education in over 60 developing countries, giving priority to girls and those affected by lack of access to education in the world today.”

Past recipients of this award include Malala Yousafzai, Desmond Tutu, Kodi Annan, James Earl Jones, Lionel Richie, Tommy Hilfiger and Sharon Stone. Harvard’s Humanitarian of the Year award recognizes “public-spirited leaders whose works and deeds have served to improve the quality of our lives and have inspired us to greater heights.”