Shakira and UNICEF team up to help children in need

Shakira sure knows how to throw a baby shower. The Columbian singer and her husband, Gerard Piqué, FC Barcelona soccer star, are expecting their second child and in anticipation, they launched their second “world baby shower” on Monday via Facebook. In order to participate, individuals are encouraged to donate funds or supplies to children in need through the emergency relief organization UNICEF. SEE ALSO: Shakira’s parents spills the beans: next grandhcild’s gender will be…. In a video on Shakira’s Facebook page, the couple asked for donations to UNICEF instead of gifts to celebrate their second pregnancy and encouraged other expecting parents to do the same if they are financially able. “There are millions of kids in the world who die daily from preventable causes, and with your help we want to change this permanently,” she wrote in the Facebook post. “Every baby deserves to have the best possible start and because we all can and should help. We hope this campaign will continue long after our baby is born and encourage other parents to share their joy and pay it forward by helping less fortunate children around the world.” People can donate gifts for the children UNICEF works with globally, such as midwifery kits that include medical equipment to enable safe delivery of 50 babies, measles and polio vaccines, blankets or baby scales. Shakira and Piqué had their first virtual baby shower directly on UNICEF’s website in January 2013, while this time around they opted for Facebook’s call to action button, which it launched in December, allowing Page administrators who upload videos to choose from options like “shop now” or “contact us.” With the UNICEF campaign, Shakira and Piqué are among the first to utilize the button’s new “donate” option. Your generosity made the last World Baby Shower with @UNICEF a huge success! Let's see if we can help even more kids in need this year. / Gracias a su generosidad el primer #WorldBabyShower fue un éxito. Ayudemos a más niños este año. www.worldbabyshower.org A photo posted by Shakira (@shakira) on Jan 19, 2015 at 9:12am PST According to numbers provided by Facebook, that campaign allowed the NGO to vaccinate 80,000 children against polio, provide nearly four tons of therapeutic food to children suffering from malnutrition, and approximately 1,000 anti-malaria bed nets and nearly 200,000 oral rehydration salts sachets. SEE ALSO: Shakira and Iggy Azalea? New Shak album sounds promising In parts of the developing world, very basic items can mean the difference between life and death for a mother and her newborn so the use of Facebook’s new Donate functionality isa fantastic way for fans and parents-to-be to join in the World Baby Shower and help offer children a healthy start in life. With over 106 million fans, Shakira is the most-liked person on Facebook and was the first person on the platform to reach the 100 million milestone. Piqué has over 16 million fans.The post Shakira and UNICEF team up to help children in need appeared first on Voxxi.