Shakira's Speech : Education Changes the World :
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll is a Colombian singer, songwriter, dancer, record producer, businesswoman, and philanthropist.
The pop star, who has been championing children’s right to education through her Barefoot Foundation, shared the significant changes that happened in the lives of children and families since her organization started building schools in the most remote areas of her home country Columbia.
Education Changes the World :
“Good morning Your Highness, excellences, friends, and colleagues. I would like to thank you for the opportunity to be here today. It’s also an honor to join forces with Educated Child, an organization led by a woman who is an amazing role model a woman who has shown such relentless dedication to getting every child in school.
This is such an exciting day for us because it marks the
beginning of a new era in my home country Colombia. Most of you may know me as
an artist, as an entertainer, and that’s indeed my calling and what I’ve been
doing since I was 13 years old, but I never would have imagined when I started
out that my work as an artist would end up being the vehicle for me to serve my
greater purpose in life of working towards eradicating poverty through the power
of Education.
As a Colombian citizen inequality as a concept that sadly
one becomes very familiar with at a very young age. It’s a country like many
others in Latin America where a few have a lot; a lot have almost nothing and
where if you’re born poor, you will almost certainly die poor. Where people
don’t access equal opportunities, and because of that generation after
generation, after generation live trapped in the same vicious cycle fed by
prejudice and inaction.
Growing up in my country when I was around eight years old,
I remember I saw kids my age who, instead of being in school were already
working in the streets, were barefoot in the park. Kids like me whose reality
was completely different than mine only because of the circumstances into which
they were born.
It was really hard for me to accept that to accept that
something so unjust didn’t have a solution. There had to be something that
could be done. So I often asked myself why the adults, around me were so
resigned to the fact that these kids who were just like me or even their own
children we’re living in a parallel reality so different and so cruel. As Kofi
Annan put it, poverty is intolerable in a world of plenty, so as soon as I had
some success, the first thing I wanted to do was to invest as many resources I
could into what later would become the most meaningful project of my life,
working for children. So I set out to find a team, a team of people who dream
big and worked hard and thought like me to help me right the wrongs that I had
witnessed throughout my entire childhood, and that’s when our foundation The
Barefoot Foundation, ‘Pies Descalzos Fundacion’ was born.
I knew, and I was only 18 years old then, but I knew that I
wanted to focus on children and improving their lives, but I didn’t know where
to start. So, I really felt that I needed to learn what the roots of inequality
and low social mobility were. So, I decided to study the reasons why children
were working in the streets or why some children were being recruited by the
violent organizations, like the paramilitary or the guerrillas, why were so
many children suffering from chronic malnutrition and I realized that most of
the issues that children face in my country had and have a common denominator;
the lack of access to quality education.
To me, it became crystal clear that Education was a surest
way to give all these kids the best fighting chance of improving their
circumstances in life because Education is the great equalizer. When I started
building schools in Colombia, which shows the most remote areas, areas where
there was literally nothing, no infrastructure, no paved roads, no electricity,
no potable water, and we decided to build in those places but not only build
schools but state-of-the-art schools. Schools with comprehensive models that
included ECD programs, school feeding programs, parent and teacher training,
and another very important part is we’ve decided to engage the government as a
strategic partner and made it nearly impossible for them to say no to doing
their part by showing them results through our holistic model that really
proved to work.
We noticed that as soon as a school is built in those
places, everything is transformed. The improvements to the infrastructure were
jaw-dropping electricity, and potable water were made available, made
accessible. Roads were paved, malnutrition plummeted, but the best part of all
is the academic results, the kids really responded academically, and now those
kids who could have been recruited by the guerrillas or paramilitaries or that
could have had a completely different outcomes for their lives, they’re now on
their way to the University and thriving in their communities. Some of them are
athletes; some of them are professionals.
That’s why… I’m so…It really is a thrill to work for
Education that’s why I’m so passionate about it because I’ve really seen
results that are as palpable as this podium and seeing all these success
stories that have a name and a last name has been the one of the most rewarding
things I’ve done in my lifetime even more so than winning Grammys, I think.
Now that said, our work is far from being done, many
developing countries are still rife with inequality and internal conflict, and
there are a lot of kids who still need to be reached.
History is not only the past. History it’s made every day in
the present, and what matters now is how we go forward and how we’ll fix what’s
wrong, and that is the real challenge. This is the goal of the SDGs and what
people like Her Highness and myself, and so many more of you who are adamant
about achieving are here for.
Facts don’t lie, and numbers show what an incredible return
on investment a quality education provides. For instance, if all students in
low-income countries left primary school with basic reading skills, a hundred
and seventy-one million people could be lifted out of poverty. Systemic change
often begins from the bottom up rather than the top down. The government must
take responsibility, and we should all put as much pressure as we possibly can,
but the rest of all the civil society should also do their part.
What we have discovered both here IPS discuss and educated
child is that many times only one single barrier to entry, such as no access to
transportation or basic needs like a functioning bathroom, can prevent a kid
from attending school or even put them at risk of dropping out. Sometimes all
it takes to change a child’s life is the security of a hot meal in school or
the ease of being able to hop on a bus that will leave you safely at your
classroom door, it’s as simple as that, and these are simple interventions, and
they don’t cost a lot.
The biggest effort really is in mapping the communities; in
going door-to-door searching for the out of school children talking to the
parents talking to their families, giving a name and putting a story behind
these children is the first step to start rewriting their story.
Over the next three years, we pledge to get fifty-four
thousand kids who are out of school or at risk of drop out into the educational
system. Ultimately, more than two hundred ninety-five thousand people will
benefit from this project, including children, teachers, families, and community
members. New schools and classrooms will be built, school kits and uniforms
will be distributed; children will be enrolled in school, feeding, and
transportation programs. Teachers will be trained in strategies and how to
identify those students who are at risk so they can receive psycho-social
support, and we are extremely confident that this partnership is only the
beginning and will be the model to replicate throughout my country until not a
single child is out of school.
This is our responsibility…Thank you…This is our
responsibility to our children and our debt to fulfill for the generations to
come.
Thank you very much.
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