Shakira Pledges $1.25 Million to Rebuild Schools Damaged by Colombia Earthquake
Shakira has committed an initial $1.25 million to help rebuild schools damaged by the August 2025 earthquake in western Colombia, announcing the pledge during a visit to Quibdó, the capital of Chocó province. The 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck on August 10, killing hundreds of people and damaging nearly 200 schools across Chocó, one of Colombia's poorest and most remote regions. Billboard
The funding is a joint effort. Shakira and her tour partner Live Nation contributed $500,000. The FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund added another $500,000, and CAF — the development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean — provided $250,000. The money is being channelled through Shakira's Fundación Pies Descalzos, or Barefoot Foundation, which she founded in 1997 to expand educational access for children in Colombia.
Shakira visited Quibdó on August 17, 2025, touring damaged classrooms and meeting students, educators and local officials, including Chocó's governor Nubia Carolina Córdoba and Quibdó's mayor Rafael Bolaños. Her foundation has operated in Chocó for more than two decades and already runs two schools in the region. She also said she planned to dedicate her personal efforts to rebuilding a local technological university in the province.
Philanthropist Howard Buffett accompanied Shakira on the visit and separately announced that his foundation would support the reconstruction of 10 additional schools in Chocó, expanding the scope of the rebuilding effort beyond the foundation's direct pledge.
The earthquake's toll on education infrastructure is severe. Chocó sits on Colombia's Pacific coast, a region long marked by geographic isolation and limited state investment, and the damage to nearly 200 schools means thousands of children face the prospect of extended displacement from classrooms in a province where educational access was already fragile.
What stands out here is how quickly the pledge assembled multiple partners. Live Nation, the world's largest concert promoter, and FIFA's Global Citizen Education Fund rarely appear in the same sentence on school reconstruction. The involvement of CAF, a multilateral lender operating across Latin America, adds an institutional layer to what began as an artist-led initiative. For a region where humanitarian attention has historically been scarce, the combination of resources — and the visibility Shakira brings to it — could matter as much as the dollar figure.
