Colombian pop star Shakira and boyfriend Pique’s soccer team FC Barcelona on Tuesday announced plans to build a sports complex for children in Miami.
Shakira’s non-profit, “Pies Descalzos,” will work with FC Barcelona to create a space in Miami to benefit some 28,000 Latino children “in vulnerable communities at risk of social exclusion,” according to Shakira’s publicists.
Through the alliance, the charity will restore a YMCA and convert it into a sports center. The center will promote education through football.
“In America we have more than 54 million Latinos. We are the fastest growing minority and we need the tools to develop the intelligence of our Latino children,” said Shakira.”Children can learn a lot of sports they provide discipline, tolerance, a goal and a dream,” she added.
Shakira created the Pies Descalzos Foundation to provide education, food, and opportunities to children in poor areas of Colombia, but her work has crossed the border into the US.