barefoot foundation

letter from Shakira
Welcome,



Thank you for all your support and love! As an artist, I am constantly looking for new challenges and ways to express myself. One way is through my music - another is by giving back and doing what I can to make our world a better place.

I want to share with you an issue that I am very passionate about. I believe that every child should have the right to follow their dreams and get an education. Growing up in Colombia, I saw that education can be a child's way out of poverty and a way to fulfill his or her potential. It is a basic right, but too often poor children are shut out.

Globally, 72 million children don't attend primary school and another 226 million aren't in secondary school. In addition, hundreds of millions of children attend some inadequate version of school but can't access the type of quality education that they really need to succeed...either the teachers don't consistently show up or there aren't enough books or the kids are too hungry to focus on their lessons.

We know how to address this. Governments must abolish school fees, hire more qualified teachers and provide textbooks and meals in schools. Most important, they must decide that a child's poverty is not an excuse - that they will educate all children regardless of what family or neighborhood they are born into. And they must prioritize education funding in their budgets.

All I have to do is close my eyes and I can imagine the faces of the homeless children that lived in my neighborhood when I was a little girl. They had no hope. Many of them sniffed glue or took drugs to forget the hunger and the cold. But I have also seen how education can alter the course of a child's life forever.

Check out some of these links to learn more about education and how you can help. It's amazing how much difference each person can make, so I hope you will join me in supporting every child's right to a quality education!

 Besos,
 Shakira

barefoot foundationnews



Thursday, January 21, 2010 / 7:36 am

Shakira announces Haiti school initiative to aid recovery



Prior to her performance on the Hope for Haiti Now Telethon, Shakira announced today an initiative to build a new school in Haiti through her Barefoot Foundation.  The Foundation will work in partnership with Architecture for Humanity to build the school and NGO partners to provide education, school feeding, clean water and sanitation services.  Foundation board member Howard Buffett, World Food Program Ambassador Against Hunger and chairman of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, will fund the school feeding component of the initiative and other related services. 

“There is a great need for immediate aid in Haiti, but also for longer-term reconstruction,” said Shakira. “For that reason, we are doing our small part to help Haiti rebuild and give the children affected by this disaster the chance to learn and thrive. I hope we can use some of what we’ve learned working in Colombia to help Haiti’s children recover.  When we educate children we empower societies, and right now Haiti needs all of our help.”

The Barefoot Haiti School will be modeled after the work of the Fundación Pies Descalzos, the Colombia-based Foundation Shakira founded which provides education, nutrition and psychological support to over six thousand Colombian children displaced by violence.   

“School feeding will be a critically important tool to ensuring the health of Haiti’s children - and their attendance at school,” said Buffett.  “Our foundation is proud to partner with Shakira on this incredibly important effort.”

The Barefoot Foundation will partner with Architecture for Humanity, a nonprofit design services firm dedicated to building a more sustainable future through the power of professional design.  “It is vital to rebuild the educational infrastructure of Haiti. We urgently need to restore a sense of normalcy in these young hearts and minds and not allow this tragedy to dictate how they see their future. With this coalition of support we can build a holistic school that will inspire and encourage Haiti’s next generation of leaders” said Cameron Sinclair, executive director of Architecture for Humanity.
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Tuesday, January 19, 2010 / 8:07 am

Shakira to participate in Friday's Hope For Haiti Now telethon



We are pleased to report that Shakira will participate in Friday's Global Telethon, "Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief". The show will also feature performances by Wyclef Jean, Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake and Coldplay, among others. "Hope For Haiti Now" will be the most widely distributed telethon in history and it will be aired on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1 and CMT on Friday, January 22, 2010 at 8pm ET/PT and 7pm CT. The show will be also streamed live on Youtube, Hulu, MySpace, AOL, Bing.com, Bet.com, CNN.com, MTV.com, VH1.com and Rhapsody.

All musical performances will be available for purchase for through the Apple iTunes Store beginning Saturday, January 23, with all proceeds benefiting Haiti relief funds managed by “Hope for Haiti Now” charities.

The Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund and United Nations World Food Programme have joined the list of relief organizations that will benefit from “Hope for Haiti Now,” which also includes Oxfam America, Partners in Health, the Red Cross, UNICEF, and Yele Haiti Foundation. Proceeds from “Hope for Haiti Now” will be split evenly among each organization’s individual funds for Haiti earthquake relief.

Until then, you can donate to UNICEF’s emergency relief fund at www.unicef.org.

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Wednesday, January 13, 2010 / 12:05 pm

"The people of Haiti need our help immediately"

The destruction and loss of life in Haiti causes us all to take stock in what is really important. This small country has endured so much - more than its fair share of tragedy. I can't imagine the devastation that has struck an already weakened infrastructure. Critical services needed for recovery, such as schools and hospitals, have been destroyed.

The people of Haiti need our help immediately. Money will be needed to provide urgent emergency relief and I urge everyone who can afford to help to either donate to UNICEF’s emergency relief fund at www.unicef.org or text the word YELE to 501501 on your U.S. cell phone (this will charge your phone $5 - it will go to Wyclef Jean's foundation which is playing a major role in the relief effort. For more information, see www.yele.org).

We must all act. As a global community, we must be part of the recovery of Haiti and its people.

Thank you.

Shakira

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