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Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher Give $1 Million for Syrian Aid

The actors have donated $500,000 to both Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee

by
Jonathan Zalman
December 28, 2015
Jason Merritt/Getty Images
Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher in Beverly Hills, California, November 9, 2013. Jason Merritt/Getty Images
Jason Merritt/Getty Images
Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher in Beverly Hills, California, November 9, 2013. Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher have donated $1 million to two charities dedicated to helping Syrians whose homeland is the site of an ongoing civil war, forcing millions to flee.

On Sunday, Save the Children, an children rights organization, announced the actors’ gift, which will be split between Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee.

500,000 Dollars will be used to fund a program vaccinating more than 250,000 children against a potential measles outbreak in Northern Syria. The other half of the donation will be used to help fund the work to support families, with a special concern for women and children, both inside Syria and in neighbouring countries who are suffering as a result of the ongoing conflict. The money will go towards education, health care, shelter and sanitation.

The International Rescue Committee is based in New York and run by David Miliband, the former British Foreign Secretary, who, like Cohen and Fisher, is Jewish.

Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.