Shakira has returned to Colombia’s Chocó region with an initial $1.25 million commitment to help rebuild schools damaged by the devastating earthquake. More than a celebrity donation, the effort continues a relationship with the area that has lasted for over two decades, with the singer making one priority clear: getting children safely back into classrooms as quickly as possible.

Shakira traveled to Quibdó, the capital of Colombia’s Chocó region, on Monday to visit communities badly affected by the 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck western Colombia on August 10. Nearly 200 schools have reported damage, and the disaster has left hundreds dead. But for Shakira, the most urgent question is not only what happens during the first days of emergency response. It is what happens after the cameras leave, international attention fades and thousands of children still do not have a safe classroom to return to.

Her visit was not designed as a brief public appearance. Shakira walked through damaged school buildings, spoke with students and teachers and met Chocó governor Nubia Carolina Córdoba and Quibdó mayor Rafael Bolaños. The goal was to hear directly from people on the ground and understand how the first wave of financial support could become something more permanent once the immediate crisis begins to pass.

That challenge is especially difficult in Chocó. Distance, poverty and limited transport infrastructure already make basic services harder to access than in many other parts of Colombia. Rebuilding schools in such an environment is not as simple as repairing a building and reopening the doors. Materials have to reach communities, safe structures have to be created and students need a realistic way to return to class.

The initial funding commitment totals $1.25 million, but the money is coming from several partners. Shakira and Live Nation are contributing $500,000. Another $500,000 comes from the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, while CAF, the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, is providing an additional $250,000.

The money will be directed through Fundación Pies Descalzos, the education foundation Shakira created in 1997. That detail changes the meaning of the initiative. This is not simply a global superstar appearing after a natural disaster to announce a donation. Pies Descalzos has worked in Chocó for roughly 22 years and already operates two schools in the region.

Shakira therefore returns to a place where she already has history. She has seen students grow up through projects supported by the foundation and understands some of the challenges that existed long before the earthquake. Chocó is not a new destination added to a philanthropic campaign. It is part of an educational commitment that has continued for more than two decades.

That is why one of the most important things she said during the visit had little to do with the size of the donation. Shakira expressed concern that damaged schools could simply remain unrepaired once the emergency period ends. For her, every day a child stays out of school is another day taken away from that child’s future.

That idea sits at the center of the entire effort. Education is not being treated as something that can wait until every other problem has been solved. It is part of the recovery itself.

In a region such as Chocó, that distinction matters enormously. The department is one of Colombia’s poorest and most isolated, with an area roughly comparable to Switzerland and many communities connected primarily through rivers or difficult, unpaved roads. Even before the earthquake, access to essential services was more complicated than in many other parts of the country.

When schools are damaged in a place that already faces deep inequality, the risk goes far beyond missing several weeks of lessons. Children can fall behind permanently. Families may struggle to keep them connected to education. Existing social gaps can become even wider.

Shakira has built much of her social work around the belief that education can interrupt that cycle. Long before major pop stars were routinely expected to attach philanthropic programs to their public image, she had already created Pies Descalzos with a focus on children in vulnerable Colombian communities.

Her international career grew dramatically after that. “Hips Don’t Lie” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Her tours became global events. She performed at some of the biggest music and sporting stages in the world. But education remained a constant part of her work outside music.

That contrast feels especially striking in 2026. Only about a month before visiting Chocó, Shakira performed during the FIFA World Cup final halftime show in front of a massive global audience. Now she is walking through damaged classrooms and speaking to children who do not know when they will be able to return to school.

The two images could hardly look more different, but they belong to the same career. One represents the largest possible international stage. The other is focused on rebuilding basic infrastructure in a remote part of the country where she was born.

The $1.25 million commitment is also only the beginning. Philanthropist Howard Buffett, who accompanied Shakira during the visit and has previously worked with her on education projects in Colombia, announced that his own foundation will separately take responsibility for restoring 10 more schools in Chocó.

Shakira also said she wants to devote personal effort to rebuilding a local technology university, expanding the recovery plan beyond primary and secondary education. That could help create a longer educational path for young people in the region rather than focusing only on immediate school repairs.

There is an important difference between emergency relief and long-term rebuilding. Immediate help is essential after any disaster: food, shelter, medical care and financial support are needed quickly. But long-term recovery determines what life will look like months and years later.

Shakira appears to be trying to connect those two stages. The immediate crisis creates the urgency, but the goal is to turn that urgency into functioning schools, stable classrooms and children who do not have to abandon education because of the earthquake.

The response has also extended well beyond her own initiative. Artists from across Latin music have begun organizing support for people affected in Colombia and Venezuela. Marc Anthony and Chayanne joined dozens of performers for a benefit concert in Miami, while Karol G pledged to match fan donations to the Con Cora Foundation during her concerts at SoFi Stadium.

That wider mobilization shows how strongly the disaster has affected the Latin music community. But Shakira’s effort stands out because it operates through an infrastructure that already exists. Pies Descalzos does not need to begin by asking what education in Chocó looks like. The foundation has already been working there for years.

That experience may prove crucial once the first wave of emergency support ends.

Public attention is easiest to capture when images of destruction are everywhere. The harder work begins later, when rebuilding becomes slower, more technical and less visible. A school needs planning, materials, teachers and long-term maintenance. Children need stability, not only temporary spaces.

Shakira appears fully aware of that timeline. Her concern is not only how much money can be announced now, but whether children in Chocó will actually be sitting at desks again months from now.

That focus gives the visit more meaning than a standard celebrity response to a disaster. The singer has returned to a region where she has already seen students move through schools supported by her foundation. She is not entering the story for the first time because of the earthquake.

She is returning because the earthquake interrupted work that was already underway.

That continuity matters. It makes education part of the rebuilding strategy rather than an additional cause competing for attention. It also means that the success of the initiative can eventually be measured in practical terms: how many schools reopen, how many students return and how many communities regain safe educational spaces.

For Shakira, the $1.25 million figure is therefore only the headline. The deeper question is what that money becomes.

If it turns into rebuilt classrooms, restored campuses and children returning to lessons, then the impact will continue long after the initial emergency passes. If it remains only a number announced during a highly visible moment, it will not be enough.

That is the challenge she is trying to address now.

Once the emergency phase ends, people will not remember the recovery because of the number of donations announced during the first week. They will remember whether communities were actually rebuilt.

And in Chocó, the clearest sign of that recovery may be one of the simplest: children walking back into classrooms and continuing the lives the earthquake suddenly interrupted.