Chile's President Michelle Bachelet Follows Shakira's Lead and Focuses on the Young

Our beloved Shakira is in the news this week, flexing her well-toned, Carlos Slim and Howard Buffett-financed ALAS muscle in Chile. Shakira leads a coalition of global smarty pants who argue that the best way to deal with the potentially devastating challenges of underdeveloped countries is by investing in their young.

Shakira meeting with Chile’s president Michelle Bachlet, Nov. 2006Maria Estela Ortiz, a Chilean education specialist, first worked with Michelle Bachelet in the late 1980s, when Bachelet was a doctor treating children whose parents had been tortured or “disappeared” by the Pinochet regime. Today, Bachelet is Chile’s president, and since she took office in March 2006, Ortiz has been helping lead one of her administration’s defining projects: providing free access to health and education programs for all Chileans under the age of 4.

Chile has been building new preschools at the astounding rate of 2.5 a day, increasing the country’s total from 781 to 4,300. Follow the story: Newsweek asks: Want a Rich, Happy Country? Start young.

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