George and Amal Clooney donate $100,000 to Lebanese charities

As more information about the tragic Beirut explosion continues to comes to light, one couple is hoping to help those on the ground who have been affected. George and Amal Clooney announced that they have donated $100,000 to help Lebanese charities in the wake of the August 4 blast, which killed 157 people and injured at least 5,000.“We’re both deeply concerned for the people of Beirut and the devastation they’ve faced in the last few days,” the couple said in a statement, obtained by Variety. “Three charitable organizations we've found are providing essential relief on the ground: the Lebanese Red Cross, Impact Lebanon, and Baytna Baytak. We will be donating $100,000 to these charities and hope that others will help in any way they can.”Amal was born in Beirut, but her family left when she was two years old during the Lebanese Civil War. They settled in England where she studied at Oxford University and eventually became a human rights lawyer. She and Clooney wed in 2014 after being introduced by Clooney’s agent, and now share two children, three-year-old twins Ella and Alexander.[video_embed id='-1']RELATED: George Clooney reveals how he met Amal[/video_embed]Following Tuesday’s explosion, which is believed to have been caused by a fire that ignited more than 2,700 tons of stored ammonium nitrate (a chemical compound typically used as fertilizer), up to 300,000 people are now homeless. Aftershocks were felt more than 240 kilometres away and protesters are now calling for the Lebanese government’s resignation over the devastating incident.Other celebrities like Ariana Grande, Jameela Jamil, Priyanka Chopra and Naomi Campbell have taken to social media to spread awareness in the days following the explosion and to encourage their followers to also donate.George and Amal (who had an estimated net worth of $510 million in 2018) have already donated more than $1 million this year to charities following the coronavirus pandemic. According to Variety, they put $250,000 to the Motion Picture and Television Home, $250,000 to the SAG-AFTRA Fund, $250,000 to the Los Angeles Mayor’s Fund, and $300,000 to Lebanese Food Bank, Lombardo Italy Region, and the U.K.’s National Health Service.While 2020 and its onslaught of tragic events seems to have brought out the charitable sides of plenty A-listers, George and Amal have been big donors for years now. Following their wedding, they sold the pictures to several magazines in order to raise money for human rights charities, and in the past they’ve given money to many other organizations including ones fighting for gun reform, providing aid to refugees, and to those helping migrant children return to their parents.In 2017, the couple also announced a $1 million grant to the Southern Poverty Law Center and they injected $20 million into their Clooney Foundation for Justice.“It will go toward educating refugees, it will go toward housing, it will go to all the things that we want to work on,” George told The Hollywood Reporter at the time.[video_embed id='-1']Before you go: Camera (6 miles away) captures Beirut shock wave 27 seconds after explosion[/video_embed]