From the mission

In the new edition of the Cafam Women's Awards, the executive director was recognized as one of the 35 women who have generated the greatest impact in the country. Patricia was honored for her work in the department of Bolivar, especially in Cartagena, where around 6,000 children and young people are impacted each year.

According to the report by Empresarios por la Educación, "Empresas, Sociedad Civil e Inversión Social en Educación", between 2021 and 2024, we were the Foundation that invested the most to contribute to Education in the country. As a result of this investment, we reached more than 124,000 children and young people per year.

Throughout the last 15 years and in a universe of more than 400,000 non-profit organizations in the country, we continue to be one of the most outstanding NGOs for our work in Colombia. Thank you for this recognition and we will continue working so that no child is left behind.

As part of the Todos al Cole project and together with the Ministry of Education, we delivered two new schools in the department. These are two schools in Riohacha and Uribia, which will serve 1200 and 800 students, respectively.

Together with our partner Howard G. Buffett, we started the construction of a new Pies Desalzos school; this time in Tibú, Norte de Santander. This is a commitment of the Foundation to continue working in remote areas where quality education will play a transforming role in the community.

This year, the educational institutions Fundación Pies Descalzos La Playa and Lomas del Peyé celebrated 15 and 10 years, respectively. We are very proud to be part of this history and to continue walking together for quality education in Colombia.

We forged an alliance with the Chamber of Books to deliver 14,000 books in the Atlantic and evaluate the impact of educational resources in language and mathematics on the learning of elementary school students.

This is the Pies Descalzos Foundation Educational Institution - Villas de Aranjuez, a school that will serve more than 900 students each year in the Villas de Aranjuez neighborhood in Cartagena. The school is the second one built by the Foundation in Cartagena and the 16th in Colombia.

Our executive director, Patricia Sierra, was awarded as a woman in the social sector in the last edition of the She is Global Forum, organized by our partner foundation She is. We are proud to be led by a woman committed to the education of children and young people in Colombia.

Together with our partner, Education Above All, we participated in the two editions of the World Summit on Educational Innovation held in Medellin, Colombia and in Doha, Qatar, sharing the experiences and development of the joint program Todos al Cole, with which we promote access to and permanence in school.

As part of the expansion and work plan in the department of La Guajira, the Foundation delivered its intervention in educational infrastructure in 6 schools in the department. The intervention focused, above all, on improving school spaces such as classrooms, dining rooms, toilets and multipurpose spaces.

The alliance seeks to promote training, welfare and entrepreneurship, closing educational gaps in the national territory.

The Nuevo Bosque-Pies Descalzos school serves more than 900 students annually and is the second school built by the Foundation in the city.

The program was carried out between 2021 and 2022, achieving, among other things, the delivery of 16,702 food rations to the students of the Pies Descalzos-La Playa school in Barranquilla.

This is the first ethno-educational school built by the Foundation to guarantee education to 200 children per year in the savannah of Manaure. It is the first construction carried out by the Foundation in the department, marking a milestone to continue its commitment to quality education in the deepest and most dispersed territories of the country.

The newspaper Portafolio recognized our contribution to the community as a Foundation, reaching more than 29,000 children in 2022 alone. This recognition is the result of the actions we develop throughout the Colombian territory.

Thanks to the Foundation's efforts, the execution and implementation of the different projects have expanded to more than 300 schools in different areas of the country, impacting more than 224,000 children and young people in Colombia since 2003.

With the isolation resulting from the pandemic, and in order to guarantee the education of children in Colombia, we developed the Pies en Casa (Feet at Home) strategy with booklets and printed materials so that students could continue to carry out educational activities with their families and guardians. We have volunteers and teachers in live sessions to teach classes and be at the service of the little ones.

In order to contribute to quality education, the Foundation began planning the construction of new schools in Barranquilla, Cartagena, La Guajira, Quibdó and Norte de Santander.

During the World Innovation Summit for Education, WISE, held in Doha (Qatar), Shakira announced the partnership between the Pies Descalzos Foundation and Education Above All, under its Educate A Child program to provide access and permanence to 69,000 primary school children in Colombia.

Fundación Pies Descalzos received the "Noûs Trayectoria de Vida" Award at the Educational Excellence Contest in Quito, Ecuador. It was also a finalist in the Public Prize for Peace, which aims to publicize and support the initiatives of artisans who build peace worldwide.

The Pies Descalzos Foundation Educational Institution - La Playa obtained the award from the Alberto Merani Foundation for being the public institution in Colombia with the greatest acceleration in a short period of time and the best performance in the Saber Tests.

The Foundation was recognized as one of the most important organizations for its work in Quality Public Education in the first volume of "The Best of Colombia". In addition, for the third consecutive year we were part of the most admired social organizations in Colombia, according to the VII opinion panel of the consulting firm Cifras & Conceptos.

The school, located in the Lomas del Peyé neighborhood in Cartagena, will provide education to more than a thousand students each year, and is the first one built by the Foundation in the city. That same year, we held the Forum "Challenges of Education: Now or Never", together with the newspaper El Espectador.

We supported 5,166 children and 67,000 members of the communities surrounding the three educational institutions in Barranquilla, Quibdó and Soacha, through the comprehensive intervention model. We were also recognized as one of the most admired organizations in Colombia, in the V opinion panel of Cifras & Conceptos.

We created the "First Things First" Alliance in favor of children from 0-5 years of age, to build 13 early childhood centers in Colombia, together with 30 partner organizations. Through the alliance, we inaugurated the Early Childhood Center at the Instituto Tecnológico Antonio Ricaurte in Quibdó.

Patricia Sierra assumed the Executive Direction of the Pies Descalzos Foundation. She comes with an extensive background in the social sector and a strong commitment to quality education. Her leadership marks a new stage to continue transforming lives through schools.

Thanks to her philanthropic work, Shakira has received multiple recognitions, including MTV Europe for humanitarian work, Harvard Foundation Artist of the Year, and Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year (2011), Spirit of Hope Award (2012), as well as being nominated for the Prince of Asturias Award and recognized as a "Hero" at the Radio Disney Music Awards in 2014.

Then U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Shakira as a Member of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.

We delivered 8 new classrooms and the Bosques de Esperanza - Pies Descalzos Sports Center to the Gabriel García Márquez School in Altos de Cazucá, promoting sports and healthy coexistence. In Quibdó, we expanded the infrastructure with 2 classrooms and a toy library to continue promoting learning through play.

To help restore Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, Shakira has delivered classrooms to schools in vulnerable communities in the country.

Within the framework of the 2010 World Cup, Shakira has delivered a school space in South Africa, as part of her commitment to quality education in the world.

The Pies Descalzos La Playa Educational Institution managed to stand out by achieving the 'High Level' in the Saber 11 Tests, a recognition of the joint effort of students, teachers and families, and the commitment to educational quality promoted by our intervention model.

The school, located in the La Playa district, will provide education to more than a thousand students each year and is the first educational center built by the Foundation. That same year we initiated the first approaches with the local government to promote the construction of a new school in Cartagena, Bolivar. In addition, we launched the income generation program as a sustainability strategy for the families of our students, integrating it into the Pies Descalzos intervention model.

We began the pedagogical work in the schools we support in Quibdó and Soacha, based on a tailor-made curriculum and new learning methodologies. We also developed the second Strategic Plan 2009 - 2011, to implement a public quality model with private support and assistance.

We acquired the land for the construction of the school in Barranquilla, initiating the educational project in La Playa, which included the development of the educational census and outreach to the community. We also awarded university scholarships to the best students in the schools and implemented the "Young educators" strategy.

We expanded our attention to 3,610 children and young people at the sites we support and consolidated our education programs with a priority focus on reading, writing and mathematics. In Barranquilla, we delivered the construction of the public school "Las Américas" and held a concert with Shakira where more than 52,000 donors joined to start a new construction in the district of La Playa.

We inaugurated the Maria Bershmans building, built by the Foundation to expand the coverage and improve the quality of the spaces of the Antonio Ricaurte Educational Institution. The building will serve 550 primary school children each year.

We opened new offices in Barranquilla (Atlántico) and Soacha (Cundinamarca), and developed our first Strategic Plan 2006-2008, with which we strengthened our educational intervention strategy and benefited 3,072 children and young people. We also opened the Pies Descalzos Primary School in Quibdó (Chocó), providing support to 550 children.

We began the construction and intervention of schools in Quibdó and Soacha, to impact 550 children in each school, as well as support in the "Las Américas" and "Siete de Abril" schools in Barranquilla, strengthening the nutritional program for 1,565 students with personalized follow-up and a psychosocial support strategy.

Shakira was the first Colombian and the youngest to receive this designation at the time.

María Emma Mejía, former Chancellor, assumed the executive leadership, as we consolidated our mission to work for quality public education, and committed ourselves to a Quality Education model.

Shakira created the Foundation after her first international success. Throughout these years, she focused her attention on the population displaced by violence and nutrition issues in children and adolescents.