Two Great Model Citizens From Colombia

By: Julián Caballero

Shakira isn't only a great pop singer. She's a model citizen who has helped people since she founded Bare Feet (in Spanish, Pies Descalzos) in 1997. Bare Feet is a non-governmental organization that has helped to promote education for poor children in Colombia. Bare Feet has supported seven schools in Barranquilla. More than 10,000 children have gone to these schools. Shakira has been a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 2003. Shakira has visited prestigious universities such as Oxford and Harvard to talk to students about her campaign, Education For All. She has been a model citizen in Colombia and in the rest of the world.

J Balvin, the famous Paisa, urban music singer and Grammy Award winner, is also a model citizen. He has done a lot of charity work. He has collected money and given donations through his social networks to help Fundación La Familia, an institution that helps children with cancer. He has also helped displaced children in South America. Like Shakira, he became a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF in 2010. Since then, he has supported a campaign to defend women against domestic violence. He has felt very patriotic about Colombia all his life. He believes in a superior being, and has saaid that he thinks God is Colombian!