CAMPAIGNS
COVID-19 RESPONSE
“I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge all the healthcare workers standing on the frontlines around the world, who expose themselves regularly to the virus, who work tirelessly around the clock and never give up. I have enormous gratitude for you - thank you.”
MADONNA
In response to the unprecedented global crisis caused by COVID-19, Madonna announced grants to organizations around the world working to save lives and protect the most vulnerable.
Madonna made a $1 million donation to support the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator’s work to develop treatments for the novel coronavirus. “I’m joining the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation effort to find a drug that will prevent or treat COVID-19. We need this to protect our health workers, the most vulnerable, and all of our friends and families,” Madonna announced via video. “Harnessing the strength and knowledge of the research community, the Accelerator’s critical scientific progress will inform how we end this pandemic and prevent future impact from the virus.”
Madonna is also supporting Shining Hope for Communities’ COVID-19 emergency response in Kenyan slums, including efforts to mobilize handwashing stations, conduct health screenings and provide emergency food distribution to the most vulnerable families. “Food is already scarce,” says SHOFCO’s CEO, Kennedy Odede. “Many have lost their jobs - and our communities survive by hand-to-mouth. There is no safety net or system [in the slums].” Since mid-March, SHOFCO's handwashing stations have been used more than two million times and community volunteers have distributed pamphlets, soap and hand sanitizer to more than 171,000 people living in extremely vulnerable conditions.
In crowded Gaza, home to more than two million people, physical distancing is impossible and health care facilities already struggle to meet patients’ needs. After the first cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Gaza, Madonna’s financial support to American Near East Refugee Aid is funding life-saving medicines, personal protective equipment (PPE) and supplies at Gaza’s largest hospital. As a result of Ray of Light’s support, Gaza’s Shifa Hospital received vital supplies and urgently needed disinfectants, including 852 liters of 70% alcohol and 700 liters of 10% iodine solution.
In the United States, Madonna announced partnerships with REFORM Alliance and the Parole Preparation Project to help protect the millions of incarcerated people in the country from COVID-19. Her support helped REFORM Alliance distribute 100,000 masks to jails and prisons in order to ensure incarcerated populations have full access to essential PPE. Madonna’s funding for the Parole Preparation Project helps the organization deliver essential items and direct services to incarcerated people in New York state prisons and jails, including soap and canned goods, care packages and ‘welcome home’ funds for those returning from prison.
GOD CONTROL
In June 2019, Madonna unveiled a powerful video for “God Control” from her new album Madame X. Directed by frequent Madonna video collaborator Jonas Åkerlund, the visually-arresting video unites art and activism as it addresses the important topic of gun control.
“God Control” evokes the heady sound of the disco era, juxtaposing the unbridled freedom of dancing in a club with the brutal and silencing violence wrought by an intruder brandishing a gun. The song features cascading strings of disco music from the late seventies, when Madonna first moved to NY and went to Studio 54, with potent lyrics that urgently demand gun control and safety and the need to wake up and continue to take action.
The video ends with a call-to-action to join Madonna in supporting organizations fighting for common-sense gun safety legislation and working to protect our most vulnerable, including:
Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, March For Our Lives Foundation, Gays Against Guns, Sandy Hook Promise Foundation, Human Rights Campaign Foundation, National LGBTQ Task Force, National Center for Transgender Equality, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, One Pulse for America, States United to Prevent Gun Violence and Marsha P. Johnson Institute
“I want to draw attention through my platform as an artist to a problem in America that is out of control and is taking the lives of innocent people. This crisis can end if our legislators act to change the laws that fail to protect us all.”
Madonna
ART FOR FREEDOM
Launched in September 2013, Art For Freedom is a global digital initiative led by Madonna designed to fuel free speech - to respond, address and protest persecution around the world. It is an online public art project encouraging the world to express their personal meaning of freedom and revolution, in the form of video, music, poetry, and photography. Art for Freedom encouraged artists to submit their own work on artforfreedom.com in the form of video, music, poetry or photography to express their personal meaning of freedom and revolution. In partnership with VICE, the campaign received over 1000 submissions in the first 48 hours of its inception.
Art For Freedom launched with the secretprojectrevolution, a 17-minute film directed by Madonna and co-directed with Steven Klein. Madonna also launched a grants program to support individuals and organizations working to advance social justice, fight oppression, intolerance and complacency. Art for Freedom partners included: Tres Islas Orphanage, Speed Sisters, Muscular Dystrophy Association, ALS Association, National Alliance on Mental Illness, Street Soccer USA, American Fund for Charities, Harlem School of the Arts, Free Arts NYC, CODEPINK and Electronic Frontier Foundation.
