In 2009 Madonna broke ground for a new school in Malawi, side by side with the country’s Minister of Education. Now the singer’s plans to build a $15 million academy for girls have fallen by the wayside. Her Raising Malawi foundation announced recently that it would instead channel $300 000 into an existing NGO which builds schools, making some Malawians very unhappy.

“We haven’t been officially approached [about the change],” education minister George Chaponda complained. “We are just reading from the media but we haven’t been told anything.”

Raising Malawi has abandoned the girls’ academy project in favour of providing funding to NGO buildOn, to build ten schools which could serve around a thousand children. That’s twice as many as the original academy would have accommodated, according to Madonna.

But the communication around this change of plan has been poor. John Bisika, a bureaucrat in the education department, says the government is very disappointed.

“We need to know what’s happening. She can’t just say: “I’m building schools here.” We need to be consulted in order to work out where schools are needed based on our data,” he said. “Let’s do it properly.”

The headman who had to convince villagers to sacrifice land for Madonna’s academy project is not exactly pleased either.

“My people reluctantly gave up their land because I convinced them the project was beneficial, not only because our girls would get world-class education but also because some of the villagers would get piecework,” said Binson Chinkhota.

Madonna has adopted two children – David and Mercy, both six – from Malawi and there’s not doubt she wants to uplift the country. But for all her good intentions, whether she has adopted an attitude of collaboration with Malawi is another question entirely, judging from reports like these.

[Source: Channel 24]

[Image: Guardian]