Shakira announced on Monday that she will mobilise funding to rebuild the Technological University of Chocó, damaged by the earthquake that struck Colombia on 10 August, as well as around ten non-university educational centres in one of the five departments worst affected by the quake.
The Barranquilla-born artist’s donation will not be made directly. The philanthropic organisation Global Citizen will contribute 500,000 dollars (€432,250) and the concert promoter Live Nation, which organised her latest tour, ‘Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran’, and is also her commercial partner, will provide a further 500,000 at her instigation.
In October 2025 Shakira joined the advisory board of the education fund that FIFA runs with Global Citizen, alongside Serena Williams, The Weeknd and FIFA’s own president, the embattled Gianni Infantino. This came several months before her participation as a performer at the recent 2026 World Cup was announced. The Barranquilla-born singer says she has allocated 100% of the royalties generated by the tournament’s official song, ‘Dai Dai’, to that fund.
Shakira will work with Colombian-American philanthropist Howard Graham Buffett, son of tycoon Warren Buffett, one of the world’s richest men thanks to multi-billion-dollar stakes in companies such as Apple, Coca-Cola and American Express.
The middle son of the billionaire obtained Colombian citizenship in 2021, under the government of Iván Duque, after investing more than 160 million dollars in projects in the Catatumbo region, including the rebuilding of roads, the replacement of illicit crops and demining work.
“Howard is going to help us, through [the Pies Descalzos Foundation], to build ten new schools in Chocó; that’s why it was so important to bring him, that’s why it was so important to come today,” Shakira told reporters during a visit with Buffett to Quibdó, the capital of Chocó. Buffett’s son has overseen Pies Descalzos for two decades; a foundation that has already taken part in the construction of several educational institutions in Colombia.
The visit comes a week after the earthquake, whose epicentre was in San José del Palmar but which affected departments such as Valle del Cauca and Risaralda. The quake has so far left 287 dead, 4,147 injured and 194 missing, according to the latest figures from the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD).