Friday, September 28, 2007

Shakira loosens her purse strings


Kind-hearted pop star Shakira is donating $40 million (Rs 159.1 crore ) to help repair damage caused by an earthquake in Peru and a hurricane in Nicaragua.The Hips Don’t Lie singer will donate the money from a foundation she co-founded during a summit on global climate change and development organised by former US president Bill Clinton in New York.Shakira had, along with Nobel Prize winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, co-founded the Latin America for Solidarity Foundation, ALAS, which means wings in Spanish.“I’ve seen first-hand many of the challenges facing Latin America,” she said in a statement.The two-time Grammy Award winner, who started another foundation to help poor children in Colombia when she was only 18, said 40 million infants do not go to school and 51 million people don’t have access to clean water in Latin America.“These are challenging problems that no one person can address, but working together everyone can help make a difference,” she added.The ALAS effort for Peru and Nicaragua includes partners like the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation, Telefonica, America Movil and the Red Cross. It aims to guarantee investments for rebuilding education, sanitation and water systems in both countries. Shakira also announced a three-year, $5 million (Rs 19.8 crore) commitment for projects for children in the region, where about 40 per cent of the population lives in poverty.

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