On Monday, Colombian singer Shakira was received at the White House to discuss early childhood development (ECD) projects in Latin America. Shakira, who is involved with the issue, founded the Fundación América Latina en Acción Solidaria (ALAS), a group comprised of Latin American artists and business leaders that advocates for ECD programs. While at the White House, the singer met with President Obama and Vice President Biden.
“It was such a privilege to sit down with the president in the Oval Office to discuss our shared commitment to education and early childhood development. We agreed that investing in our children is the smartest strategy governments can use to boost economic growth, fight poverty, and promote global security and peace,” said Shakira. “I briefed the president on the progress made this year through ALAS with the heads of state of Latin American governments, and explained that we have made early childhood development a central topic of discussion during the next Ibero-American Summit to take place in Argentina later this year,” she added
She later headed to the World Bank to meet with its president Robert Zoellick, with whom she announced a $300 million initiative to promote ECD.
“We look forward to working closely with ALAS and the Earth Institute in the months and years to come as we move this important agenda forward,” said Zoellick. “ALAS — Shakira in particular — have made an enormous contribution toward placing young children at the heart of the public policy discourse in Latin America.”
Shakira, who had met previously with President Obama during his inauguration ceremonies, also stressed the urgency of comprehensive immigration reform during her discussions with the White House. According to her representative, officials from the White House told Shakira that they hope to reach a deal with Republicans this year to legalize undocumented immigrants.
I’d be very interested to know where all the money comes from. I hope she’s not getting paid for any of this, which is often what happens with “activist” celebrities. Would be awesome if her organization leverages all these celebrities’ money as well as just publicity.
I’m not really loving that the US is willing to spend our money to educate
poor kids in L.America Shakira has enough money to educate them
we need to take care of our own first
e.g. our failing public schools……..
I applaud artists like Shakira who are trying to help the world.
Applaud her for what? How much money is she giving to support the efforts? I could almost bet not one penny of the 300 million comes from her. I think she does this to help her sell records and make her more likable. And her new record is not very good. She tries too hard to be white.
She is proud to be Colombian. How is she trying to be white? I guess Obama is too.. Coming from another Colombian it’s great that she’s trying to help where she comes from and the U.S can really help. Their schools are much worse than ours. We have the ability to change it more than Latin schools.
I am NOT impressed! Why is our country so obsessed with celebrities? Why are we not impressed with individuals who do good for the sake of doing good and not to benefit their own image?