Black Celebrity Philanthropists Who Support Africa

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Isaiah Washington


Actor and philanthropist Washington (who played Dr. Preston Burke on TV’s Grey’s Anatomy) has teamed up with the organization Waves 4 Water to provide water filters and construct rain water catching devices to promote sustainable water systems in some of the poorest villages in the world. Waves 4 Water has been involved at ground zero of disaster relief efforts in places such as Bali, Sumatra and Haiti to make drinking water safe again for earthquake and tsunami victims and villages affected by diseases such as cholera.

The actor was inspired to found his charity, the Gondobay Magna Foundation, after performing a DNA test and learning of his ancestral ties to the Mende Temne people of Sierra Leone. On April 26, 2010, he was sworn in as a Sierra Leonean citizen, becoming the first African American to obtain dual citizenship based on his DNA connection.

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