+ A
A -
Ailyn Agonia
DOHA
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and Grammy Award-winning artiste Shakira Mebarak has emphasised the power of education to transform and improve an individual life in her remarks during the Educate A Child plenary of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) 2019 at the Qatar National Convention Center on Thursday.
The pop star, who has been championing children’s right to education through her Barefoot Foundation (Fundacion Pies Descalzos,) shared before a crowd of policy-makers, global influencers and educators the significant changes happened in the lives of children and families when her organisation started building schools in the most remote areas of her home country Columbia.
Shakira established her foundation in 1997 with the aim of helping poor and impoverished children. She said, “I realised that most of the issues children faced in my country have something to do with the lack of their access to quality education. For me, it became crystal clear that education is the sure way to give all these children the best fighting chance in life.”
The artiste said that the inspiration behind the Barefoot Foundation was her exposure at a very young age to children who, instead of attending school like her then, were forced to take jobs to survive or seen running barefoot in parks.
“In Columbia, like many Latin America countries, a few have a lot, a lot have almost nothing, and if you are born poor, you would almost certainly die poor; people don’t have equal opportunities and because of that, generations after generations get trapped in the same vicious cycle,” she said.
Shakira fondly referred to her work at her foundation as her ‘greater purpose in life’ more than bagging Grammy awards or her many achievements in the entertainment world.
On her partnership with Educate A Child, a programme of Education Above All Foundation, Shakira said, “It is an honour to join forces with Educate a Child. This is such an exciting day for us because it marks the beginning of a new era in my home country Columbia. Most of you know me as an artiste and entertainer; that’s indeed my calling. But I never would have imagined when I started out that my work as an artiste would end up being a vehicle for me to serve my greater purpose in life of working towards eradicating poverty through the power of education.”
She said the new partnership will benefit thousands of children, teachers and families, and will lead to the establishment of new schools, distribution of school uniforms, provision of transportation for schoolchildren, and provision of training programmes for teachers, among others. “We are extremely confident that this partnership is only the beginning,” she said.
Shakira also called on governments and civic societies to do their part in changing children’s lives even through simple interventions or addressing basic issues that prevent them from attending schools such as lack of access to transportation.
“Systemic change often begins from the bottom up, rather than the top down,” added Shakira.
DOHA
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and Grammy Award-winning artiste Shakira Mebarak has emphasised the power of education to transform and improve an individual life in her remarks during the Educate A Child plenary of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) 2019 at the Qatar National Convention Center on Thursday.
The pop star, who has been championing children’s right to education through her Barefoot Foundation (Fundacion Pies Descalzos,) shared before a crowd of policy-makers, global influencers and educators the significant changes happened in the lives of children and families when her organisation started building schools in the most remote areas of her home country Columbia.
Shakira established her foundation in 1997 with the aim of helping poor and impoverished children. She said, “I realised that most of the issues children faced in my country have something to do with the lack of their access to quality education. For me, it became crystal clear that education is the sure way to give all these children the best fighting chance in life.”
The artiste said that the inspiration behind the Barefoot Foundation was her exposure at a very young age to children who, instead of attending school like her then, were forced to take jobs to survive or seen running barefoot in parks.
“In Columbia, like many Latin America countries, a few have a lot, a lot have almost nothing, and if you are born poor, you would almost certainly die poor; people don’t have equal opportunities and because of that, generations after generations get trapped in the same vicious cycle,” she said.
Shakira fondly referred to her work at her foundation as her ‘greater purpose in life’ more than bagging Grammy awards or her many achievements in the entertainment world.
On her partnership with Educate A Child, a programme of Education Above All Foundation, Shakira said, “It is an honour to join forces with Educate a Child. This is such an exciting day for us because it marks the beginning of a new era in my home country Columbia. Most of you know me as an artiste and entertainer; that’s indeed my calling. But I never would have imagined when I started out that my work as an artiste would end up being a vehicle for me to serve my greater purpose in life of working towards eradicating poverty through the power of education.”
She said the new partnership will benefit thousands of children, teachers and families, and will lead to the establishment of new schools, distribution of school uniforms, provision of transportation for schoolchildren, and provision of training programmes for teachers, among others. “We are extremely confident that this partnership is only the beginning,” she said.
Shakira also called on governments and civic societies to do their part in changing children’s lives even through simple interventions or addressing basic issues that prevent them from attending schools such as lack of access to transportation.
“Systemic change often begins from the bottom up, rather than the top down,” added Shakira.
