On February 2, 1977, Shakira Mebarak Ripoll was born in Barranquilla, Colombia. Her father was a jeweler from Lebanese descent born in New York. After living a life full of comfort her father’s business went bankrupt just when we she was 7 years old. In the midst of the situation her father took her to a neighborhood where she saw barefoot and hungry children. Time passed but those images never faded from her mind. She wrote her first song at 8 years old and signed her first record deal at when she was 13. After her first two albums she became a superstar because of her strong vocals and her incredible hip shaking belly dance moves. She has been awarded with several Grammy awards and a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame. Besides her busy career she has focused on helping children in need. In 1997, at the age of 18 Shakira created Pies Descalzos foundation which focuses on helping children and their families that are located in vulnerable communities and populations displaced by violence in her native country Colombia. Her charitable work focuses on universal education and early childhood development. She has a three part strategy that embraces foundations devoted to development advocacy in Colombia, Latin America and the World. In 2000, the Colombian government named Shakira as a goodwill ambassador and later in 2006 she received an honorific mention in …show more content…
She has given a great example and a great challenge on how education should be. I believe that this is certainly a great example for many young people on how to contribute to overcome issues such as poverty, violence, to name a few. Shakira is a leader because she focuses on helping and aiding society with a vision of development inspired by education and nutrition, breaking the paradigm of the disadvantaged. Coming from a Hispanic background and seeing how education and poverty is in Latin American countries the work she has done is