George Clooney Donated $21,000 to Provide Shelter for Flooded French Villagers

George Clooney reportedly donated $21,000 to a French village late last year after it was ravaged by floods.

Jérémy Giuliano — the mayor of Le Val, in Provence, southeastern France — thanked the Ticket to Paradise star over the weekend for helping provide shelter for local residents after their homes were severely damaged by heavy flooding in October 2021.

"The day after the floods, we received a message that George Clooney wanted to contact us. Which resulted in a donation of 20,000 euros," Giuliano said Saturday reported Var Matin.

"It was spontaneous and I want to say thank you," continued Giuliano, reported The Times.

Giuliano added that he initially decided to keep news of the "enormous" donation private because it "would not have been appropriate to over-publicize it and to put it in the media," per The Times.

That has now changed, he said, because the repairs on the village's homes are almost complete.

"Now we are in the phase of reconstruction [of the town], so I pushed for us to say it because it's important for the victims to say who made this donation," added Giuliano, according to The Times.

Flash floods hit the beautiful region of Provence on Oct. 4, 2021, with Meteo-France recording just under 7 inches of rainfall in Marseille.

France 3 reported at the time that "three housing estates [had] been flooded" in Le Val, with the water reaching as high as 5.5 feet in some homes. Mud had also "damaged everything," affecting the lives of "eighty victims."

"The 80 victims of this village were able to count on the help of the firefighters to evacuate the material damaged by the mud and to clean the houses using lances," added France 3.

Clooney and his wife, human rights attorney Amal Clooney, 44, are well known for their philanthropic work.

In September, the couple celebrated the achievements of their Clooney Foundation for Justice at its inaugural Albie Awards, which was attended by celebrity guests including Meryl Streep, Dua Lipa, John Oliver, Julia Roberts, and Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa, among others.

"We collaborate on everything. We collaborated on twins!" Clooney told PEOPLE outside the New York Public Library event, which is named after Justice Albie Sachs to shine a spotlight on defenders of justice who are at risk for what they do. "This is an exciting one because Amal's gotten journalists out of Egypt, out of Azerbaijan, prisons, out of — all over the world, Myanmar."

He added, "My father's a journalist. I have a great affinity for them — her mother's a journalist. So it's really exciting for me when she's able to get people who are wrongly accused for doing their job out [of prison]. So, for me, it's just — I couldn't be more proud of my wife."

As for what George hopes the pair will teach their 5-year-old twins Alexander and Ella, he said, "There's tons of stuff. But the number one thing is: challenge people with power and defend people without power."