Whenever, Wherever, Shakira Wants Global Education

Many know Shakira for her Latin-inspired pop songs and hip gyrations. But the singer was subdued and earnest in a recent op-ed in the Economist, where she called for government support for the Global Fund for Education in 2010.

The Fund is an effort of the Millennium Development Goals to reduce global poverty by ensuring every child has the ability to complete primary school by 2015.

As Shakira describes:

A lot is at stake. In the past two years over 600 schools in Afghanistan have been bombed, burned or shut down by extremists. Eighty percent of these have been schools for girls. Why? Because the education of a child is the most powerful form of national security--and that's why it is such a threat to militants everywhere...This isn't theoretical to me. Growing up in Colombia after decades of conflict I saw that the people who are born poor, die poor. With rare exceptions, they never have the chance to improve their lives.

The singer has returned to her home country as founder of the Barefoot Foundation to help educate the millions poor children that have been displaced by Columbia's internal conflicts.

If our foundation can bring quality education to some of the poorest children in the world there is no reason why governments can't do the same thing. Our schools in Colombia are proving each and every day that no matter where a child is from, no matter how poor children are, they can thrive if given the chance.

You can read more about Shakira's experience in helping these children and how she believes governments around the world can do more at The Economist.

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