Hollywood stars Oprah Winfrey and Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, made a massive announcement last month by starting a fundraising campaign. As announced on social media by the duo, the objective of this fund donation was to help the victims of the Maui wildfire, who lost houses in the tragedy.
Initiating the noble cause by themselves, The A-list Hollywood duo donated around $10 million together in this fundraiser. In addition to their own contribution, they also requested that the general public play their parts. Even though their motive to start this fund was a noble one, their announcement received a lot of criticizm from fans all across the world.
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People on the internet have been accusing both these stars that they could have funded it entirely by themselves, and their backlash has potentially taken a toll on the fundraiser’s success. Some of the online trolls have called it a scam, and that’s why a lot of negativity has been generated for the People’s Fund of Maui.
Looking at how Dwayne and Oprah have received huge backlash for this fund, it seems that netizens haven’t been able to understand the Hollywood stars’ motive. As per initial estimates, their donation was set to provide funda to help residents for about six months, but as the cause has received backlash from fans, it’ll probably get affected negatively.
Oprah Winfrey hits back at critics for backlash towards the Maui Fund
As some of the fans referred to this fund donation by Winfrey and Dwayne as a scam, Oprah recently hit back at critics for their backlash. The Oprah Winfrey Show’s host defended the People’s Fund of Maui during her recent appearance on CBS Mornings.
The female star appeared on the show to promote her new book, and that’s when she also talked about the criticizm of Maui Fund. The 69-year-old said, “All the online [conversations] — being “slammed, lies, conspiracy theories — really took the focus off of what was the most important thing and that was the people of Maui.” (Via: The Hollywood Reporter)
Later in the interview, Oprah revealed how she was very excited about this cause, and this backlash from fans came as a shock. She disclosed that according to her, providing money directly into people’s hands is a significant thing, and till now, 2,200 people have been verified to receive money from the Fund of Maui.
Looking at how Winfrey shared facts to support her joint fund donation with the WWE legend, it seems that the backlash they received wasn’t right. For now, the number of victims who have received help through these funds might be small, but it’ll probably go higher as the verification process continues further.
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