Shakira breaks ground on Colombian school through her 'Bare Feet' Foundation

By Rafael Abreu Posted Apr 13th 2011 06:30AM

This week, Colombian pop singer Shakira visited her native country to break ground on a school for 1,500 underprivileged students in a poor neighborhood in Cartagena, Colombia.

Smiling and holding many of the young students' hands, the singer expressed her joy in helping support and contribute toward a small grain of sand in the hopes of furthering the students' education and "break the chains of poverty and combat violence."

During the event, in which Maria Emma Mejia, the president of the Pies Descalzos (Bare Feet) Foundation and former foreign minister and Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations, and Philanthropist Howard Buffet were also present, Shakira referred to the place where the school is to be constructed as "a high-risk area where many leaders had thrown in the towel."

The Notimex news agency said that the construction of the mega-school, which would be the sixth school built with the help of the singer's foundation, would require an investment of more than $5 million dollars and will be in an area that is approximately 2 acres, known as Loma de Peyé.

Pies Descalzos is a nonprofit, nongovernmental foundation established in 1997 by Shakira to help underprivileged children throughout Colombia receive an education. Support for the foundation comes through donations by the pop singer, as well as Colombian and international companies. The foundation bares the namesake of the pop singer's breakout debut album, which was released worldwide in 1996. More recently, Pies Descalzos announced a school initiative in quake- and poverty-ravaged Haiti.

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