Colombian pop diva Shakira wrote about the value of education for peace and her recent trip to Israel in an op-ed published in the Huffington Post Wednesday.
In the article, Colombia’s most famous singer expressed the pleasure she felt during her visit to the Max Rayne Jerusalem School, where Israeli and Palestinian children attend jointly and speak both Hebrew and Arabic. Shakira commented that such efforts to improve education are among the most important tools in creating a peaceful world writing, “this visit reminded me, once again, that the most crucial decisions we can make for a better tomorrow concern how to raise and educate our children.”
Shakira mentioned her own education group, the Barefoot Foundation and how she has sought to break cycles of conflict and poverty in Colombia through education. According to the singer, her foundation currently educates 6,000 students in Colombia and hundreds more in Haiti and South Africa.
Shakira ended her article with a hopeful message about the power of education to end violence. The singer wrote that “children are born expecting peace,” and that “there is no other investment that has the kind of social multiplier effect that early education has.”
Shakira concluded her article calling children “the hope we might have to find peace.”