Australian actress Margot Robbie has asked her fans to generously donate to firefighting services and wildlife shelters as the bushfire crisis continues.
The 29-year-old Bombshell star, who is nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture at today’s Golden Globes, shared an Instagram video in which she candidly spoke about growing up in Queensland, which along with the rest of Australia is “really hurting right now”.
After showing snippets of a private family album featuring photos of her at the farm, riding motorbikes and making mud pies as a kid, Margot requested her followers donate and help “give future generations the kind of childhood I was so lucky to have”.
“I’m sure you’re all aware of what’s happening in Australia at the moment with the fires and I didn’t want to show you more pictures of the devastation,” she said.
“I wanted you to see how beautiful our country is because it is so beautiful and it’s really, really hurting right now, and it really, really needs you. So please, please donate anything you can.”
The actress said she had already donated to a few fundraisers, and it “took me less than a minute to donate and I’m terrible with technology”.
“It was really, really easy,” she said. “For whatever you would’ve spent on your next cup of coffee, even a dollar would help, it’s so needed right now.
“Please, please if you haven’t already donated, please do and let’s give future generations the kind of childhood I was so lucky to have.”
In her Instagram stories, Margot shared links to the NSW Rural Fire Service, Wires Wildlife Rescue, Red Cross Australia, and Salvation Army with her over 17 million followers.
Margot’s Bombshell co-star Nicole Kidman pledged a $500,000 donation on behalf of her family to the New South Wales state Rural Fire Service, without specifying a currency.
“Our family’s support, thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by the fires all over Australia,” she wrote, next to a link to a national firefighting donation page.
Australia has witnessed its worst bushfire season since flames began raging back in October.
The death of a 47-year old man, who was defending a friend’s rural property in NSW, took the national toll this season to 24 but NSW Premier Berejiklian said on Monday there were two people unaccounted for on NSW’s far south coast. There were four people unaccounted for in Victoria on Monday.
No fires were burning out of control in the New South Wales, but four fires in Victoria had Evacuate Now or Emergency Level warnings.
Haze from the fires was turning skies orange as far away as New Zealand, with local police having to tell people to not call the emergency phone number.
In Canberra, officials asked for 100,000 extra breathing masks from the national stockpile as the country’s capital recorded the worst air quality in the world on Sunday, according to the IQAir AirVisual global index.
This season, 5.25 million hectares of land has been burnt, half a billion animals are feared to have perished, thousands of people have been evacuated from holiday beaches, and more than 1300 homes have been destroyed.
The federal government announced an unprecedented call up of army reservists to support firefighters as well other resources including a third navy ship equipped for disaster and humanitarian relief.
Carly Williams contributed to this report.