Shakira, Barefoot Foundation
“Educating and caring for our children is the cement on the path to peace,” reads the front page for Fundacion Pies Descalzos, or the Barefoot Foundation website. It is a lofty goal that, for many, sounds familiar. Many foundations dedicate their time and resources to educating children. For Shakira Mebarak Ripoll, this goal would shape her life from a very young age.
Born in Barranquilla, Colombia in 1977, Shakira was exposed to the extreme disparity of education early on. Her music career would launch her into fame when she was just eighteen years old with her hit album Pies descalzos in 1995. This album, meaning Barefoot in english, established her as an international success as the album was met with critical success both in Latin America and the United States (Editors 2019). Shakira’s growing fame would not cloud her eyes to those less fortunate, however, and with her fame she dedicated her time and resources to the opening of Fundación Pies Descalzos, in honor of her hit album of the same name in 1997. Her goal? Provide the resources necessary to promote a quality public education for children in Colombia (Fundación 2019). It’s twin, the Barefoot Foundation, is based in the US as a non-profit organization that helps make education universally available to children. It is a separate entity from Pies Descalzos, but has the same mission (Barefoot 2018).
The foundations aim to promote three key strategies to further the success of Columbian school children. Pies Descalzos provides “personal growth and sustainable development, allowing people to recognize their skills to contribute to the progress of their communities,” (Fundacion 2019). They also are committed to quality public education by providing support to teachers and managers who train teachers, as well as providing spaces for learning. Nutrition is the last part of their key strategies and it involves promoting children on what a healthy lifestyle looks like, while providing them with adequate levels of nutrition to enhance school performance and quality of life (Fundacion 2019). Barefoot looks to work with children to help them rise above the limitations that poverty and displacement can bring through education. They work with children who have known violence and famine (Barefoot 2018).
Shakira’s dedication to the Foundation shows. In an interview with the New York Times, Shakira admitted to being afraid because the work this foundation does is so important. Any failure wouldn’t just be on her, but would reflect on the thousands of children in Columbia who have been impacted by Shakira’s philanthropy. As Malcomson notes, “ Celebrity philanthropy, rock ’n’ roll philanthropy, is no longer a novelty, but what Shakira and ALAS were trying was indeed new. They were looking to use the power of pop to help the populations not of distant impoverished lands but of the Ibero-American world from which they come,” (2009). And like all long-term impactful change, it starts with implementing a strong foundation rooted in government policy. This change would need to have the support of the government to maintain these goals of early childhood nutrition, education, and medical care. Barefoot would help provide the money and resources, but permanent policy change is what makes Fundacion Pies Descalzos so impactful (Malcomson 2009).
“I grew up in the developing world, I grew up seeing injustice,” she told me. “I grew up in the middle of a severe social crisis, left and right wings fighting with each other, people in the middle caught in the crossfire. I’ve seen millions of people displaced in Colombia. But I’ve also seen that, in countries like mine, when a child is born poor, he will die poor, unless he receives an opportunity. That opportunity is education. It’s that helping hand that they’re looking for. Latin America is a young continent, it’s malleable, it’s flexible. We still can change.”
-Shakira Mebarak Ripoll
The Barefoot Foundation supports schools run by Pies Descalzos, as well as schools in Haiti and South Africa. More than five thousand children receive an education, food, and support services in these schools and over 30,000 children have been helped because of the program. The foundation also looks to construct schools and promote global advocacy in the world community (Barefoot 2018). The upcoming goal for Fundacion Pies Descalzos is to implement strategic change in Columbia by providing more than 21,000 people in the Public Educational Institutions with “spaces of peace” to continue education by 2020 (Fundacion 2019). The success of Shakira’s foundations are clear when we see how many children have been raised out of destitution and been provided a foundation for a better life.
Since 1997, Shakira has sought to change the way education is maintained in Columbia and elsewhere. Her ideas are not new- humans have always strived to educate others and educational philanthropy is one of the oldest forms of philanthropy in the world. Her implementation of policy change and upstream thinking is not even new, but for the children of Columbia, it surely is novel. Bringing her resources and influence to a new place of need is what makes Shakira’s foundations so successful and impactful.
Megan Singleton, February 7th, 2019
References
Barefoot foundation. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.barefootfoundation.com/about-us/
Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2019). Shakira, columbian musician. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Shakira
Fundacion pies descalzos. (2019). Retrieved from https://fundacionpiesdescalzos.com/en/history/
Malcomson, S. (2009, June 2,). Shakira's children. The New York Times Magazine, Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/magazine/07Shakira-t.html
Philanthropy. Retrieved from http://www.shakira.com/philanthropy
Image Resources
http://www.shakira.com/img/philanthropy/tumblr_m467l9UonZ1rvn8rao1_1280.jpg
https://yt3.ggpht.com/a-/AAuE7mDayhmMwjkzFciFcWoaIQhj-IsX_D_KMtJwxA=s900-mo-c-c0xffffffff-rj-k-no
Born in Barranquilla, Colombia in 1977, Shakira was exposed to the extreme disparity of education early on. Her music career would launch her into fame when she was just eighteen years old with her hit album Pies descalzos in 1995. This album, meaning Barefoot in english, established her as an international success as the album was met with critical success both in Latin America and the United States (Editors 2019). Shakira’s growing fame would not cloud her eyes to those less fortunate, however, and with her fame she dedicated her time and resources to the opening of Fundación Pies Descalzos, in honor of her hit album of the same name in 1997. Her goal? Provide the resources necessary to promote a quality public education for children in Colombia (Fundación 2019). It’s twin, the Barefoot Foundation, is based in the US as a non-profit organization that helps make education universally available to children. It is a separate entity from Pies Descalzos, but has the same mission (Barefoot 2018).
The foundations aim to promote three key strategies to further the success of Columbian school children. Pies Descalzos provides “personal growth and sustainable development, allowing people to recognize their skills to contribute to the progress of their communities,” (Fundacion 2019). They also are committed to quality public education by providing support to teachers and managers who train teachers, as well as providing spaces for learning. Nutrition is the last part of their key strategies and it involves promoting children on what a healthy lifestyle looks like, while providing them with adequate levels of nutrition to enhance school performance and quality of life (Fundacion 2019). Barefoot looks to work with children to help them rise above the limitations that poverty and displacement can bring through education. They work with children who have known violence and famine (Barefoot 2018).
Shakira’s dedication to the Foundation shows. In an interview with the New York Times, Shakira admitted to being afraid because the work this foundation does is so important. Any failure wouldn’t just be on her, but would reflect on the thousands of children in Columbia who have been impacted by Shakira’s philanthropy. As Malcomson notes, “ Celebrity philanthropy, rock ’n’ roll philanthropy, is no longer a novelty, but what Shakira and ALAS were trying was indeed new. They were looking to use the power of pop to help the populations not of distant impoverished lands but of the Ibero-American world from which they come,” (2009). And like all long-term impactful change, it starts with implementing a strong foundation rooted in government policy. This change would need to have the support of the government to maintain these goals of early childhood nutrition, education, and medical care. Barefoot would help provide the money and resources, but permanent policy change is what makes Fundacion Pies Descalzos so impactful (Malcomson 2009).
“I grew up in the developing world, I grew up seeing injustice,” she told me. “I grew up in the middle of a severe social crisis, left and right wings fighting with each other, people in the middle caught in the crossfire. I’ve seen millions of people displaced in Colombia. But I’ve also seen that, in countries like mine, when a child is born poor, he will die poor, unless he receives an opportunity. That opportunity is education. It’s that helping hand that they’re looking for. Latin America is a young continent, it’s malleable, it’s flexible. We still can change.”
-Shakira Mebarak Ripoll
The Barefoot Foundation supports schools run by Pies Descalzos, as well as schools in Haiti and South Africa. More than five thousand children receive an education, food, and support services in these schools and over 30,000 children have been helped because of the program. The foundation also looks to construct schools and promote global advocacy in the world community (Barefoot 2018). The upcoming goal for Fundacion Pies Descalzos is to implement strategic change in Columbia by providing more than 21,000 people in the Public Educational Institutions with “spaces of peace” to continue education by 2020 (Fundacion 2019). The success of Shakira’s foundations are clear when we see how many children have been raised out of destitution and been provided a foundation for a better life.
Since 1997, Shakira has sought to change the way education is maintained in Columbia and elsewhere. Her ideas are not new- humans have always strived to educate others and educational philanthropy is one of the oldest forms of philanthropy in the world. Her implementation of policy change and upstream thinking is not even new, but for the children of Columbia, it surely is novel. Bringing her resources and influence to a new place of need is what makes Shakira’s foundations so successful and impactful.
Megan Singleton, February 7th, 2019
References
Barefoot foundation. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.barefootfoundation.com/about-us/
Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2019). Shakira, columbian musician. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Shakira
Fundacion pies descalzos. (2019). Retrieved from https://fundacionpiesdescalzos.com/en/history/
Malcomson, S. (2009, June 2,). Shakira's children. The New York Times Magazine, Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/magazine/07Shakira-t.html
Philanthropy. Retrieved from http://www.shakira.com/philanthropy
Image Resources
http://www.shakira.com/img/philanthropy/tumblr_m467l9UonZ1rvn8rao1_1280.jpg
https://yt3.ggpht.com/a-/AAuE7mDayhmMwjkzFciFcWoaIQhj-IsX_D_KMtJwxA=s900-mo-c-c0xffffffff-rj-k-no