The Voice judge Shakira is doing a lot more than just judging musical talent these days. On Monday, the singer opened a new school in Colombia.

The new school is located in Lomas del Peyé, a low-income town in Catagena, which is located in Colombia's Atlantic Coast. The school will teach 1,700 underprivileged children who range from the age of day care children to high school students.

"This is part of my advocacy: Promote access to universal education," Shakira said in an interview with Billboard.

The school represents the eighth school funded by Pies Descalzos (which translates to Bare Feet in English), the non-profit organization Shakira founded in 1997.

"I want to demonstrate through the Pies Descalzos model how we can change the lives, not only of the children who come to school, but also their families," Shakira continued. "Entire communities can be transformed when you have a school that functions properly," said the singer, noting that when she built a school in her hometown of Barranquilla, there were no paved roads in the area. In Lomas del Peyé, one of Cartagena's poorest neighborhoods, much of the community had no water or power."

The school features a community center and library. Giancarlo Mazzanti, a Colombian architect, designed the school.

Monday's inauguration of the school drew hundreds of people.

"I'm so happy to see so many joyful faces in these students," Shakira said. "They'll have the tools necessary to become good citizens, far from violence and drugs. We dream of the day in which there will be no child without an education in Colombia."

Visiting children included Milan, Shakira and boyfriend Gerard Piqué's one-year-old son. It was Milan's first time in Shakira's home country. He acquired a Columbian passport during the visit.

The Cartagena government, the Howard G Buffett Foundation, Fundación Mario Santo Domingo, Fundación FC Barcelona, Fundación Pacific Rubiales Energy, Ecopetrol, Colombian daily El Tiempo and the Colombia's Institute for Child Welfare also helped fund the Lomas del Peyé school.