Singer Shakira has set up the Barefoot Foundation to insure that every child has the right to a quality education. The program already has schools running in Shakira's native Columbia.
As a young child growing up in Columbia
Shakira saw other children who were too poor to go to school. These barefoot children inspired her then to grow up and be able to help them.
That inspiration has lead to the
Barefoot Foundation, whose mission is for education to be universally available to everyone. At the age of eighteen Shakira launched the Pies Descalzos Foundation, dedicated to helping Colombian children who have been victimized by poverty and displacement.
The words pies descalzos translates to barefoot. In Shakira's native Columbia barefoot has a double meaning, the negative meaning is that there are thousands of children so poor that their families can not afford to put shoes on their feet.
Since 2003 the Barefoot Foundation has opened six schools in Barranquilla, Altos de Cazucá and Quibdó. More than 5,000 children are being fed nutritious meals as they are educated and given psychological support services at school.
Last year the foundation opened their most ambitious school, Fundación Pies Descalzos School in the Barranquilla’s Corregimiento La Playa district. The bilingual school is bringing education to 1,800 children. It is also serving as a community center for the neighbourhood.
The United States branch of the foundation opened in 2008.
Shakira wrote about the program for
The Hot Seat:
It’s difficult to believe that, in today’s world, 72 million kids don’t have access to any kind of education, and 226 million adolescents don’t attend secondary school. Hundreds of millions who do attend school can’t learn because of inadequate teachers, lack of supplies or empty stomachs.
Education for every child is within our reach. Let’s make a commitment to the children of the world. Let us tell them -- today -- that we see their value, no matter where they happen to have been born or how difficult their circumstances. Let’s make clear that we believe in them and that through hard work they can improve their lives. Let’s commit to giving them the tools they need to build our future.
