Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and her movie star husband George have opened up their home in Kentucky to Hazim Avdal, a young Yazidi man who fled ISIS in war-torn Iraq.
According to Amal and George's recent interview with David Letterman on his new Netflix series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, helping Avdal succeed in America was an easy decision to make. Letterman, who met with Avdal in person on the new episode of the interview program, spoke via iPad with Amal and George. The attorney told Letterman:
"I’ve had the privilege of representing a number of Yazidis who have been the victims of genocide perpetrated by ISIS over the past couple of years, that's how I met Hazim. And when I met him, I remember being so struck by his courage but also just his amazing spirit and how he spoke about, even after everything he lost, he spoke about his desire for justice, not revenge."
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One thing the power couple wanted to do for Avdal? Give him the opportunity to go to college in the United States. Today, Avdal is a student at the University of Chicago, and lives in Kentucky at one of the Clooney family homes.
"He spoke about his dream about one day studying in the U.S. and I knew [George and I] had the same thought, which was, 'Well, maybe there’s something we can do to help with that,'" Amal said in her interview.
This isn't the first time the Clooneys have pledged to help a refugee in need, though it may be the most personal. In September of 2017, George told The Hollywood Reporter that he and Amal would collectively put $20 million dollars in The Clooney Foundation. According to George, that money will go directly towards helping refugees get on their feet by providing things like schools for refugee-heavy populations in the United States.
Celebrities can sometimes be criticized for speaking up on political issues without taking steps towards action. Here, however, it's clear that the Clooneys are helping their fellow man in a very tangible way. While not everyone has the means to help others in the specific way that the Clooneys can, perhaps this story will encourage people to seek out the ways in which they can make a difference, be it large or small, in someone else's life.