Shakira during the Latin Grammy ceremony in Seville, November 16, 2023. Credit: Junta de Andalucía, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Ten days after the 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck Chocó on August 10, Shakira and several partners announced $1.25 million to restore schools. The Pies Descalzos foundation is set to lead the work with local authorities. But neither the selected sites, nor the timetable, nor the disbursements have been made public yet, even though nearly 200 schools are said to have reported damage.
A Collective Fund, Not a Personal $1.25 Million Gift
The announcement brings together several funders. The Global Citizen press release details $500,000 from the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, another $500,000 associated with Live Nation, and $250,000 contributed by CAF, the development bank for Latin America and the Caribbean. This initial fund is intended to support repairs to schools affected in Chocó, a department in western Colombia.
However, the presentation of the second $500,000 contribution is inconsistent. The press release summary attributes it jointly to Shakira and Live Nation, while the body text describes it as a matching contribution from Live Nation. In a direct post, the singer also says that Live Nation will match the $500,000 from the education fund. The available documents therefore do not allow a personal contribution from Shakira to be isolated within this million designated for schools.
CAF, for its part, describes its $250,000 as an initial contribution. The press release does not specify whether it is a donation, a grant, or another financial instrument, nor when the money will be disbursed. At this stage, the $1.25 million thus represents an announced commitment, not proof that work has begun or that all the funds have already been transferred.
Pies Descalzos Takes The Lead, Without A Public Map Of The Schools
The Pies Descalzos foundation is expected to lead the operations with local authorities and educational communities. Founded by Shakira, it has worked in education in Colombia for twenty-five years and is already active in Chocó. That presence provides operational capacity, but it still does not answer the key questions: which buildings will be repaired, according to what criteria, and under what oversight?
The figure most often cited comes from the same partner press release: nearly 200 schools are said to have reported damage after the earthquake. This is not a technical, school-by-school published list. The document does not distinguish between minor damage, temporarily closed buildings, and sites requiring complete reconstruction. It also does not show what share of these schools can be covered by the announced fund.
The first step should therefore be a shared assessment of structures, water and electricity access, furniture, and access roads. In rural areas of Chocó, getting a school back up and running sometimes depends as much on transportation and connectivity as on the walls. Without that assessment, the number of affected schools risks lumping together very different needs.
The University And Ten Schools Are Separate Commitments
Two additional announcements should not be confused with the $1.25 million. Shakira says she will commit personal resources to rebuilding the Technological University of Chocó in Quibdó, where some former students supported by Pies Descalzos continue their studies. However, she does not give an amount, a schedule, or a financing structure.
Meanwhile, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation has committed to working with Pies Descalzos on ten new schools in Chocó. Global Citizen mentions ten additional schools in Quibdó and nearby rural areas. No budget, site, project owner, or timeline has yet been made public. These ten schools therefore do not correspond to the roughly 200 schools reported as damaged and cannot be presented as already built.
The terminology itself calls for caution. Public announcements variously speak of reconstruction, construction, and support. But repairing an existing school, rebuilding a destroyed site, and creating a new school are three different operations, with different costs, permits, and timelines. A named list of projects will need to clarify their nature.
A Deep Earthquake Whose Damage Must Be Documented Locally
The Colombian Geological Service places the earthquake’s epicenter in San José del Palmar, in Chocó. The event occurred on August 10 at 7:34 a.m. local time, with a magnitude of 7.4 and a depth of 103 kilometers.
Magnitude measures the energy released by the earthquake; it does not by itself describe the damage in each municipality. Damage varies in particular according to distance from the epicenter, soil conditions, and the vulnerability of buildings. For schools, only local inspections can determine whether a building can reopen, needs reinforcement, or must be replaced.
That distinction matters for how funding is used. An emergency intervention can secure a site or install temporary classrooms, while lasting reconstruction requires studies, contracts, work oversight, and standards adapted to seismic risk. The financial announcement therefore opens a process; it is not its conclusion.
From Promise To Worksite, The Expected Indicators
Mobilizing an international artist can quickly attract partners and keep attention on Chocó. To become a clear reconstruction policy, it must now produce verifiable information. The first is the date each contribution is made available, with a distinction between a promised amount, a contracted amount, and money actually disbursed.
Next come the criteria for selecting the schools. The level of danger, the number of students left without classes, the lack of nearby alternatives, and rural isolation could guide priorities. Those criteria will need to be made public to ensure that strong media visibility does not outweigh the real educational emergency.
The cost and progress of each project are a third indicator. A periodic table could specify the site, type of intervention, budget, funder, expected timeline, and current stage. It would also make it possible to understand what falls under the $1.25 million, the Buffett Foundation’s commitment, or the personal resources announced for the university.
Finally, school communities must be able to follow the decisions that affect them. Principals, teachers, parents, and students know the daily constraints that a photo of a damaged building does not capture. Their participation can help define priority work and verify that reopening provides safe learning conditions.
As of August 20, no publicly available document yet provides that level of detail. The effort around Shakira creates financial capacity and an identified lead; its real scope will be measured by the number of students permanently back in class, the works delivered, and the regular publication of spending.
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