Shakira Supports Education for All

Singer Shakira has set up the Barefoot Foundation to insure that every child has the right to a quality education. The program already has schools running in Shakira's native Columbia.

I quote from a recent interview:

Education is a right, not a privilege, and we need to treat it that way. Far too often, children who are born poor die poor, trapping too many children in a cycle of despair. Education is the most powerful way to break the cycle. Education affects every aspect of development. Research has shown that access to education increases wages, lowers the risk of disease and decreases the likelihood a child will turn to a destructive violent life. A single year of primary education can increase a girl’s wages by 10 to 20 percent later in life. We cannot possibly hope to thrive as a global community if we continue to turn our backs on the potential and talents of millions of children.

It’s difficult to believe that, in today’s world, 72 million kids don’t have access to any kind of education, and 226 million adolescents don’t attend secondary school. Hundreds of millions who do attend school can’t learn because of inadequate teachers, lack of supplies or empty stomachs.

Shakira is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and honorary chair of the Global Campaign for Education.

Last year she came to Washington to lobby for the Education for All Act!