Shakira takes hope to the Catatumbo: will build school in conflict zone

The Colombian superstar Shakira announced Tuesday that its Barefoot Fet Foundation, in collaboration with the Philanthropist Howard G. Buffett and the Colombian Ministry of Education, will build a new school in Tibú, a town in the Catatumbo region, on the border with Venezuela.

The Catatumbo has been the scene of intense clashes between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and Dissidencies of the FARC, which has generated a serious humanitarian crisis in the region.

«Education changes lives and that’s why we continue to build future. Now in Tibú, together with Howard G. Buffett, the Ministry of Education and more allies, we realize a new school so that more boys and girls, in the midst of their so difficult and extreme situation in the Catatumbo, have access to quality education, ”Shakira wrote on his Instagram account.

The news comes while Shakira is in Colombia as part of his tour «Women no longer cry World Tour.» The artist has already appeared at her native Barranquilla and has scheduled two concerts in Bogotá before continuing her tour of Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Dominican Republic, the United States and Peru.

The construction of the school in Tibú is an effort to provide educational opportunities to boys and girls living in one of the areas most affected by the armed conflict in Colombia. The initiative seeks to offer a safe and propitious space for learning, thus contributing to the social transformation of the region.

The Desalzos Foot Foundation, created by Shakira in 1997, has built and supported various schools in Colombia and other countries, with the aim of promoting education as a motor of social change.