Shakira donates €13.5m to Haïti hurricane Matthew victims
Shakira donates €13.5m to Haïti hurricane Matthew victims
POP-ROCKER and Barcelona resident Shakira has donated US$15 million (about €13.5m) to Haïti to help victims of hurricane Matthew who have lost their homes.
The Colombian chart-topper, 39, who lives with Barça FC midfielder Gerard Piqué and their two little boys in the Catalunya capital, runs a global charity called the Fundación Pies Descalzos ('Bare Feet Foundation'), named after the bestselling album and single therefrom which she released when she was 20 and which has built schools and health centres and provided aid for needy communities in Colombia and beyond.
This is not the first time Shakira, via her charitable foundation, has helped Haïti after a natural disaster.
Back in 2010 when the Caribbean island nation was destroyed by an earthquake reaching 7 on the Richter scale leaving between 220,000 and 300,000 dead, the singer-songwriter and musician handed over US$400,000 to rebuild a school.
The Bare Feet Foundation started out with children and education in mind, as Shakira revealed more than 10 years ago that some three million kids in Colombia did not go to school.
Haïti has been the worst-hit by hurricane Matthew, with 473 dead, 75 missing, 339 injured and over 175,000 homeless.
The USA's south-east coast, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic have also suffered and, in total, about 1.5 million people are thought to have been affected by injury, death, bereavement or homelessness.
Donations are actively being sought, since the United Nations estimates it will need nearly US$120m to help the victims.
