George & Amal Clooney Show Support for Gun Violence Prevention at DC March For Our Lives Event

George Clooney and Amal Clooney joined the thousands of people marching on Washington D.C. for gun violence prevention.

The actor, 56, and his humanitarian lawyer wife, 40, supported the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivors at the March For Our Lives event on Saturday.

The couple previously announced they made a $500,000 donation to the even in the name of their 9-month-old twins Ella and Alexander shortly after the Parkland, Florida, shooting survivors set the plans. George praised the survivors of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting for their bravery in a statement to PEOPLE at the time.

Since then, George also went on to pen a letter to Parkland students printed in The Guardian the day before the event emphasizing that “Amal and I are 100% behind you.”

“Congratulations on the incredible work you and all of your fellow students are doing to make the country a safer place,” he continued.

“We both feel very strongly that this is your march. Your moment. Young people are taking it to the adults and that has been your most effective tool,” George wrote. “The fact that no adults will speak on the stage in DC is a powerful message to the world that if we can’t do something about gun violence then you will.”

Addressing his letter to Eagle Eye — Stoneman Douglas’ newsmagazine — co-editors Emma Dowd, Lauren Newman and Rebecca, George urged all young people involved to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“You make me proud of my country again,” he concluded.

RELATED PHOTOS: See All the Moving Images from March for Our Lives

This is just the latest philanthropic cause the Clooneys have supported through The Clooney Foundation for Justice. The foundation, co-founded by the couple in 2016, works to advance justice in courtrooms, classrooms and communities around the world. The foundation recently partnered up with UNICEF to open seven public schools for Syrian refugees in Amal’s native Lebanon.

George and Amal also donated $1 million through the foundation to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit organization monitoring the activities of domestic hate groups and other extremists, after the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The “March for Our Lives” event is the first time little Ella and Alexander are part of their parents’ charitable actions. George made sure to mention them in his initial statement and drove home the point of gun violence prevention with a powerful sentiment: “Our children’s lives depend on it.”

The actor has been vocal about what it’s been like becoming a parent for the first time and his desire for his kids to grow up aware of the world around them even though they were born more privileged.

“Just because you happen to have been born into a sort of lucky situation in many ways, certainly not into poverty and into some place of luxury, you want to make sure they’re empathetic and compassionate,” he said. “That they learn all the things I was taught as a young man about how we’re only successful as a country as the people who are least successful. I think that’s going to be a challenge, to constantly remind our kids that being born in one place doesn’t give you the right to just ignore everyone else’s difficulties.”

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