Nicki Minaj is giving back to her native country in a big way. While visiting St. Jude’s Home for Girls in Trinidad, Nicki pledged a donation of $25,000 to help the girls at the school.

“I wanna thank you for your work with the girls,” she said. “I wanna thank you for giving them hope and inspiration and they’ve even given me hope and inspiration being here today. And I wanna donate $25,000 to help the girls.” The room erupted in cheers and applause.

She also announced that she plans to create a building in Trinidad where young people can go and have fun.

“I came to get ideas and you guys gave me a lot of great ideas on creating a building here in Trinidad where young people can go to and have recreational fun.”

The “Yikes” rapper also gave the girls great advice on how push forward through the hard times in their life. She used her own experiences as proof to the girls that they can make it through anything.

She said, “I’ve experienced being in a home with domestic violence. I’ve experienced, you know, being at a very difficult crossroads in my life as a teenager. And sometimes as a teenager when things happen, you feel like there’s no up from there.”

She continued, “If you have to use my life as a lesson in the fact that, there is always better days ahead. I want you guys to be encouraged. I want you guys to know that God didn’t promise us a problem-free life…but there has to be something inside of you, even right now today, that decides you’re going to win no matter what, no matter comes at you, no matter what was already said about you, no matter if you don’t have your parents, no matter if you don’t have family. You have to know and decide today, right now, that you are going to be one of the ones in this room that wins.”

Check out the video of Nicki speaking with the girls below.