Shakira and Sanz to present “biggest social project of the century”

Colombian pop star Shakira and Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz announced
they will present “the biggest social project of the century” at the
Latin American summit in El Salvador later this week.

The artists hope to reach an inter-American consensus on how to battle the problems of children early development in Latin America.

“We are going to El Salvador with the support of the participating countries, especially that of President Saca (of El Savador, who will preside the summit and of (singer) Enrique Iglesias who leads these forces of the iberoamerican dialogue. Our goal is to achieve that early education becomes a reality in our countries, now that we know it is the real way to abandon poverty,” Shakira said.

Shakira urges Latin American governments to

1. Form a regional working group DIB on early childhood development, led by Shakira’s ALAS foundation, involving several NGOs like Unicef and the World Bank.
2. Promote cooperation with the DIB in each and every Latin American country
3. Monitor the progress in all countries
4. Create a pilot project in at least 5 countries
5. Come up with financial and organizational strategies for the DIT in the countries
6. Provide feedback during the 2009 Latin American summit.

The summit will be held in San Salvador from October 29 until October 31.

• Shakira’s ALAS foundation explains the proposals (Spanish)