Rihanna inspires people to help one another while accepting Harvard's humanitarian award
What do Malala Yousafzai, former UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon and Rihanna have in common? They've now all been honored with the same prestigious award.
The "Anti" singer was granted the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations' Humanitarian Award on Tuesday night, and as we all would expect, her acceptance speech was perfect.
Being recognized for her work in her native island Barbados and the charities she has founded over the years, Rihanna took to the ivy league's lectern to deliver a genuinely inspiring speech. She opened with a joke in true diva fashion, “So, I made it to Harvard."
The singer went on to explain her passion for helping people started when she was a little girl seeing television commercials about how a quarter could help save a child's life.
"I would think to myself, 'I wonder how many 25 cents I could save up to save all the kids in Africa'" she said, "And I would say to myself, 'When I grow up and I get rich, I'm gonna save kids all over the world.'"
"I just didn't know I would be in a position to do that by the time I was a teenager," the singer continued, unintentionally reminding us all to immediately re-download "Pon de Replay."
After talking about the organizations she has since founded and assisted, Rihanna shared some truly inspiring wisdom.
"All you need to do is help on person, expecting nothing in return," she said. "To me, that is a humanitarian."
"What the little girl watching those commercials didn't know is that you don't have to be rich to be a humanitarian - you don't have to be rich to help somebody," she continued, "You don't have to be famous, you don't have to be college educated. But it starts with your neighbor."
"You just do whatever you can to help in any way that you can," the singer wisely advised.
You can watch her inspiring speech in its entirety starting at 1:16:00
Who knew our favorite Badgal had such a good heart? (Everyone.)
