Category:
Inspiring Stories
More than a year after we published our last post on inspirational people of our generation, we are back with another very inspiring story. This is the story of Shakira's philanthropy. Yes! Shakira - the famous Colombian singer best remembered for her single "Hips don't lie" and the grace with which she moves those hips. We are reproducing below an article that appeared in The Hindu Business Line on Nov 25, 2011. It talks about how Shakira has been doing philanthropy for the last 15 years. Considering that she is 34 today, she started really young at the age of 19 and that is the message we want to bring to today's youth. Start young, you have more time to effect change.
Shakira, the Barefoot do-gooder
by Tatiana Rodriguez
For 15 years, the Colombian singer has been promoting children's access to education. The name Shakira has several meanings, and one of them, in Lebanese Arabic, is “full of grace.” The popular Colombian singer by the same name has certainly tried to live up to that ideal. With her big eyes and long, blond tresses, Shakira, now 34, has spent the past 15 years promoting access to education for children and youth all over the world.
Her achievements go beyond the two Grammys and eight Latin Grammys she has been awarded over the years, or sharing the stage with famed musicians such as Bono, Alejandro Saenz, Gustavo Cerati, Beyonce and Mick Jagger, or even selling more than 70 million records worldwide.
That is because Shakira, through her “Pies Descalzos” (Barefoot Foundation), has helped more than 6,000 needy children, offering them free education, nutrition and healthcare. Born in Barranquilla, Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (her full name) has not only been successful as an artist, but also as an agent for change in a society marked by inequality, violence and underdevelopment; perhaps because she herself has had firsthand experience of it all growing up in Colombia.
In October, US President Barack Obama appointed Shakira to the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. This distinction came because of her sustained efforts to promote “the democratisation of education.” She was also recently named the 2011 Latin Recording Academy person of the year because of her commitment to social causes. She is the youngest artist to receive the award, presented during an event prior to the Latin Grammy celebration at which she also garnered yet another Latin Grammy — Album of the Year — for Sale el sol (The Sun Rises). Just a couple of days earlier, Shakira became the first Colombian to be honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
She set up the Barefoot Foundation in 1997 following the wave of success she had with her second album by the same name. The singer had chosen the name in an attempt to draw attention to the hunger and poverty children faced in Baranquilla. From then on, Shakira decided to allot a share of her earnings to nutrition and education projects in Colombia. She became a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF) in 2003, to promote the expansion and improvement of comprehensive early childhood care and education across the world. Her philanthropic work has covered countries such as Haiti, where, after the 2010 earthquake, she offered — through her foundation — to rebuild schools in conjunction with the Inter-American Development Bank.
The Barefoot Foundation has funded 20 educational projects in Colombia and built six schools there in the last seven years. These schools, supported by Shakira, provide food for the children, use the latest teaching methods, are bilingual and have sports facilities, orchards and plots for produce cultivation. All of these endeavours provide employment and activities to more than 30,000 people. The artist, with 11 musical productions behind her, funnels a million dollars into the construction of each project and 40 per cent of her earnings to maintain extra-curricular activities at the schools.
Bringing in the private sector has been indispensable for each educational project, because only a few backers can really continue to support school management. Shakira has forged alliances with powerful private donors, including Mexican multi-billionaire Carlos Slim, also of Lebanese descent. Six years ago, she became a founding member of Latin America in Solidarity Action (ALAS, or WINGS, by its Spanish acronym), a coalition of artists and business leaders seeking to promote integrated early childhood public policies.
For her, engagements as an artist are no impediment to continue her charity work. Not long ago, after a concert at the Rock in Rio Festival, where she swayed her hips in her trademark style, Shakira launched a cooperation programme to protect early childhood. Also contributing to the project are Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, and Xuxa Meneghel, a well-known local singer and television host, through her own foundation.
The goodwill ambassador filled with the Caribbean spirit and endowed with sensual hips, a magical glance and a marvellous voice plans to continue to “fill with grace” not only the world's pop music stages, but also those places where the neediest are hurting.
Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-life/article2657442.ece
Shakira, the Barefoot do-gooder
by Tatiana Rodriguez
For 15 years, the Colombian singer has been promoting children's access to education. The name Shakira has several meanings, and one of them, in Lebanese Arabic, is “full of grace.” The popular Colombian singer by the same name has certainly tried to live up to that ideal. With her big eyes and long, blond tresses, Shakira, now 34, has spent the past 15 years promoting access to education for children and youth all over the world. Her achievements go beyond the two Grammys and eight Latin Grammys she has been awarded over the years, or sharing the stage with famed musicians such as Bono, Alejandro Saenz, Gustavo Cerati, Beyonce and Mick Jagger, or even selling more than 70 million records worldwide.
That is because Shakira, through her “Pies Descalzos” (Barefoot Foundation), has helped more than 6,000 needy children, offering them free education, nutrition and healthcare. Born in Barranquilla, Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (her full name) has not only been successful as an artist, but also as an agent for change in a society marked by inequality, violence and underdevelopment; perhaps because she herself has had firsthand experience of it all growing up in Colombia.
In October, US President Barack Obama appointed Shakira to the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. This distinction came because of her sustained efforts to promote “the democratisation of education.” She was also recently named the 2011 Latin Recording Academy person of the year because of her commitment to social causes. She is the youngest artist to receive the award, presented during an event prior to the Latin Grammy celebration at which she also garnered yet another Latin Grammy — Album of the Year — for Sale el sol (The Sun Rises). Just a couple of days earlier, Shakira became the first Colombian to be honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
She set up the Barefoot Foundation in 1997 following the wave of success she had with her second album by the same name. The singer had chosen the name in an attempt to draw attention to the hunger and poverty children faced in Baranquilla. From then on, Shakira decided to allot a share of her earnings to nutrition and education projects in Colombia. She became a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF) in 2003, to promote the expansion and improvement of comprehensive early childhood care and education across the world. Her philanthropic work has covered countries such as Haiti, where, after the 2010 earthquake, she offered — through her foundation — to rebuild schools in conjunction with the Inter-American Development Bank.
The Barefoot Foundation has funded 20 educational projects in Colombia and built six schools there in the last seven years. These schools, supported by Shakira, provide food for the children, use the latest teaching methods, are bilingual and have sports facilities, orchards and plots for produce cultivation. All of these endeavours provide employment and activities to more than 30,000 people. The artist, with 11 musical productions behind her, funnels a million dollars into the construction of each project and 40 per cent of her earnings to maintain extra-curricular activities at the schools.
Bringing in the private sector has been indispensable for each educational project, because only a few backers can really continue to support school management. Shakira has forged alliances with powerful private donors, including Mexican multi-billionaire Carlos Slim, also of Lebanese descent. Six years ago, she became a founding member of Latin America in Solidarity Action (ALAS, or WINGS, by its Spanish acronym), a coalition of artists and business leaders seeking to promote integrated early childhood public policies.
For her, engagements as an artist are no impediment to continue her charity work. Not long ago, after a concert at the Rock in Rio Festival, where she swayed her hips in her trademark style, Shakira launched a cooperation programme to protect early childhood. Also contributing to the project are Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, and Xuxa Meneghel, a well-known local singer and television host, through her own foundation.
The goodwill ambassador filled with the Caribbean spirit and endowed with sensual hips, a magical glance and a marvellous voice plans to continue to “fill with grace” not only the world's pop music stages, but also those places where the neediest are hurting.
Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-life/article2657442.ece
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