Singer Beyoncé has announced that she will donate one million dollars to organizations that are helping on the ground in Colombia after the 7.4 magnitude earthquake that shook the country two weeks ago. “The donation is intended to immediately help provide food and housing supplies to the areas most severely affected by the 7.4 magnitude earthquake that shook Chocó in the early hours of August 10,” the artist’s company, Parkwood Entertainment, confirmed to the Efe agency this Tuesday.
In a statement, the company also invites visiting two of those organizations that are carrying out recovery work on the ground, Food for the Poor and World Central Kitchen, the NGO of Spanish chef José Andrés.
The note released by Parkwood Entertainment recalls that, in addition to the dead and injured, many have lost their homes and there is damaged infrastructure in several cities, which severely affects the food supply. For now, the death toll from the earthquake is 331, according to the latest report from the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD), which reports 4,439 injured, 240 missing, and 364 people rescued.
Beyoncé is not the only artist who has mobilized to help the victims of the earthquake in Colombia. Shakira announced last week that she will rebuild the Technological University of Chocó and that together with American philanthropist Howard Graham Buffett, she will promote the construction of 10 new schools in the department. “I am going to dedicate all my personal efforts to rebuilding the Technological University of Chocó (…) Howard is going to help us with (the Foundation) Pies Descalzos to build ten new schools in Chocó, that’s why it was so important to bring him, that’s why it was so important to come,” said the Colombian artist during her visit with Buffett to Quibdó, the capital of Chocó. Shakira also explained that, on her initiative, the Global Citizen movement will contribute 500,000 dollars and the concert promoter Live Nation will give another 500,000, for a total of one million dollars that will be allocated to the reconstruction of the schools destroyed by the earthquake. On the other hand, footballer Lamine Yamal and artist Ryan Castro also joined on their social networks to announce the sending of aid to the country after the disaster.
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This is not the first time that Beyoncé, who reached billionaire status last March according to Forbes magazine, has allocated part of her fortune to social causes. The multiple Grammy Award winner and her husband, artist and producer Jay-Z, have invested over the years in various American communities — especially those that have marked their lives — through multiple philanthropic initiatives and their respective charitable organizations: Shawn Carter Foundation and BeyGood Foundation.
In 2003, the diva performed at the 46664 Benefit Concert in Cape Town in support of Nelson Mandela’s foundation against AIDS, visited the Baphumelele children’s home to raise awareness about the disease, and later donated the proceeds from the The Verizon Ladies First Tour to continue supporting the foundation, explains the website of her foundation. In 2006, she donated 2 billion dollars to build a building with 42 apartments for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. More recently, the powerful artist couple donated 2.5 million dollars in 2025 through the Los Angeles Fire Relief Fund after the devastating fires that ravaged the Californian city and caused hundreds of Los Angeles residents to lose their homes. BeyGood also previously awarded scholarships to 100 students, particularly those attending historically Black colleges and universities, according to the organization’s website.
Additionally, Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland, her partner in the successful group Destiny’s Child, are finalizing the Knowles-Rowland House, a permanent housing project with support services located in downtown Houston — Beyoncé’s hometown — valued at 8.4 million dollars and which will have 31 units to provide stable housing and comprehensive services to homeless people.
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