Shakira Builds School
International superstar Shakira has been a tireless proponent of universal education for many years. This week, she was in her home town of Barranquilla, Colombia to inaugurate the Barefoot Foundation School, a new district school and community center that will serve l500 full time students, preschool through high school. It will also provide services to 8,400 young people and their parents from the local community, most of whom have recently arrived in Barranquilla, having been displaced by years of conflict in Colombia.
Colombia faces a humanitarian crisis of gargantuan proportions, exceeded only by that of the Sudan. Four decades of internal strife has displaced more than 2.6 million people, 45% of which are children.
The Barefoot Foundation School is the fifth and largest school that Shakira has built. Located on 9.8 acres of property, the l51,00 sq ft facility includes 40 classrooms, four computer labs, a library, scholastic restaurant, theatre, sports complex and auditorium.
The school makes use of the most modern teaching methods and syllabus, teaching languages, physics, chemistry, literature and more. Through The Barefoot foundation’s open door policy, the entire local population will be able make use of its sports facility and vocational training program , making it a Center for Community Development as Shakira intended when she first conceived of the school.
The Barefoot Foundation is a non government, nonprofit organization created in 1995 by Shakira. Since 2003, under the direction of Maria Emma Mejia, the former Chancellor and Minister of Education, the foundation has made it its mission to help Colombia’s most vulnerable people: children and the displaced population.
The Barefoot Foundation has created five schools in the three regions of Colombia most affected by population displacement: Quibdó on the Pacific Coast; Altos de Cazuca on the outskirts of Bogota and Barranquilla in the Caribbean. The foundation has served more than 5,000 children with education, balanced meals, uniforms, school supplies, psychological and social support, as well as extracurricular activities. Thus far, more than 30,000 people who live in conditions of constant vulnerability have been given tools that they can help them forge a productive and quality life.