Singer Shakira gives 10,000 shoes to her native Colombia

BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombian singer Shakira returned to her hometown of Barranquilla this week to donate 10,000 pairs of tennis shoes to impoverished children.

The Latin pop star sang for the children Thursday night and urged them to take part in sports.

Shakira said she remembered “seeing many children in the streets playing soccer without shoes” in Barranquilla, a city on Colombia’s Caribbean coast 435 miles north of Bogota.

The donation was made through the Barefoot Foundation, named after one of Shakira’s discs, called “Pies Descalzos” in Spanish.

In October, at the first MTV Video Music Awards Latin America, Shakira swept all five categories in which she was nominated, including artist of the year. A month earlier, Shakira won a Latin Grammy for her “Suerte” video, the Spanish-language version of her hit “Whenever, Wherever.”