Shakira’s Dedication to Education
CHESTER, United Kingdom — Many best know three-time Grammy Award winner, Shakira Mebarak, for her supremely successful music career. Releasing her first album at just 13 years old, she has since sold more than 85 million records worldwide and earned 326 awards – the most of any Latin artist in history. However, music is not the only thing Shakira committed herself to at an early age, nor is it her sole success. Shakira’s dedication to education began with the creation of the Pies Descalzos Foundation (or, the Barefoot Foundation).
The Spark
Shakira’s dedication to education began when she noticed the lack of schools in certain areas of Colombia, particularly her hometown of Barranquilla, of which there were only two schools for the 15,000 children in the neighborhood of El Bosque. To put that number into perspective, the average primary school in the U.K. has 281 pupils. Therefore, the two schools in El Bosque would realistically only have space for, approximately, less than 4% of those 15,000 children.
An issue this large within her home was all the spark Shakira needed to start the Pies Descalzos Foundation in 1997. She has argued that “lasting peace” and equality can only be achieved when Columbia’s government focuses its attention and finance on education, “because education is what equalizes us.”
The Plan
The Pies Descalzos Foundation formed to promote “public quality education for children in vulnerable situations in Colombia.” The Foundation approaches its mission in several ways, including:
Building educational spaces
Generating innovative teachings
Supporting nutrition
Providing psychological care
Promoting community development
The Foundation is a nonprofit and currently supports schools in Altos de Cazucá, Soacha, Quibdó and Barranquilla, focusing on areas where existing schools are too full. Donations to the Foundation go directly to education, with $4.3 million going to the project in Shakira’s hometown of Barranquilla. Additionally, Shakira often offers her own earnings and service to improve education in Colombia:
In 2002, Shakira donated 10,000 pairs of tennis shoes to impoverished children in Barranquilla.
In 2003, Shakira became a UNICEF ambᴀssador, helping to raise awareness for the world’s most vulnerable children.
The year 2014 was when Shakira donated the profits of her 12-part web series and line of toys to Pies Descalzos Foundation.
The Wins
Shakira’s Foundation has had a profound effect on Colombia’s education and it recently received the Portfolio Award win (2022) for “Contribution to the Community.” So far, the Pies Descalzos Foundation has trained more than 1,000 teachers, impacted more than 300,000 children and their families, built nine educational insтιтutions and spaces (with seven more currently in the works) and improved 79 public schools.
In addition to the Foundation’s achievements, Shakira’s dedication to improving education and promoting its importance has earned her many accolades over the decades she has been involved in philanthropy:
In 2010, the United Nations gave Shakira a medal for helping children living in poverty.
President Obama gave Shakira a position with the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics in 2011.
Shakira became a member of former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s International Commission on Financing Global Education in 2015.
Shakira received the Crystal Award at the World Economic Forum for her humanitarian work in 2017.
Looking Ahead
Shakira’s dedication to education is not as well-renowned as her services to the music industry, but it is one she is just as proud of, having described the satisfaction of helping an impoverished child succeed in education “surpᴀssing that of earning (her) a Grammy.” Currently, there are around 1.2 million Colombian children not receiving formal education – that is 11% of school-age children not in school. It is an issue ongoing, but one that fortunately has the dedicated attention of the biggest Latin artist in the world.
