• Apr 10 09
  
  ....[Madonna] is said to have instructed architects to sketch out plans for a house to accommodate the star and her family when they visit, according to British newspaper The Sun.
  
  A source tells the publication, "Madonna has a big, beautiful plot of land over there already. She’s planning to build a girl’s school in the Chinkhota village and those designs are well under way.
  
  “But she’s gone back to the designers and asked if they could accommodate a family home on the plot or on adjacent land.”
  
  Madonna's adoption of Malawian tot David Banda, three, was made official last year (08) following two years of legal wrangling. She is also mum to Rocco, eight, from her marriage to Guy Ritchie, and Lourdes, from a previous relationship.
  

• Pop queen Madonna is planning to build a family home in Malawi after the failure of her adoption bid, it has emerged.
  
  Last week a judge turned down her bid to adopt four-year-old Mercy James because she hadn’t lived in the country for 18 months.
  
  The Material Girl has asked her architects
  to build home in the African country, as she believes adopted son David Banda would benefit from a connection to his birthplace.
  
  “Madonna has a big, beautiful plot of land over there already. She’s planning to build a girl’s school in the Chinkhota village and those designs are well under way,” the Sun quoted a source as saying.
  
  “But she’s gone back to the designers and asked if they could accommodate a family home on the plot or on adjacent land,” the source added.
  

• by Stephanie Lysaght
  
  Madonna may have lost the legal battle, but she still believes she can win the war.
  
  A Malawi court rejected Madonna's bid to adopt 3-year-old Mercy James last week, because the pop singer had not lived in Malawi for the required 18 months.
  
  The requirement was waived when Madonna adopted her son David Banda from the region, according to CNN. "The decision came down to residency requirement and the fact that the judge believes [Mercy James] was being well taken care of in the orphanage," Zione Ntaba, a spokeswoman for the Malawi Justice Department, told CNN.
  
  So, according to the Sun, Madonna is now doing what any of us would do in her situation: building a home in Malawi, of course. Oh yeah, and a school.
  

• Shock for villagers forced to move out to make way for girls' school as plan is axed

  ---

  by Godfrey Mapondera in Lilongwe
  21 January 2011
  
  Under a hot sun, boys herd goats in search of green grass. In a nearby plot a couple weed a crop of maize. The ceremony and fanfare that surrounded the visit of Madonna in 2009 now seems very distant.
  
  It was here in the village of Chinkhota in southern Malawi that the pop superstar broke ground for the construction of a prestigious academy for underprivileged girls. Billed as a "gift" to the African country from which she has adopted two children, the $15m (�9.37m) institution was to take in 500 girls and prepare them to be "future women leaders".
  
  Now local elders have accused Madonna of letting them down, and the Malawi government has been forced to admit it does not know what her plans are, after she announced that the academy had been scrapped.
  
  Madonna stated that she would instead focus on building secondary schools across the country, rather than one school, but officials in Malawi have been left scratching their heads as to what this will entail. "I want to reach thousands, not hundreds of girls," she said in a statement this month. "I want to do more and I want to do it better."
  
  The news has come as a bombshell to villagers who surrendered their ancestral land to make way for the school. The Malawian government said it had not been consulted and will now summon the 52-year-old singer to explain herself.
  
  "We'd like to know why she has changed," said Peter Mutharika, the education minister. "Yes, we do appreciate that it is her project; she devised it and she knows best how to implement it. But still, as government, we'd be interested to know why there is this change." Mutharika, tipped to be the next president when his brother, Bingu wa Mutharika, ends his final term in 2014, added: "I honestly don't know the number of schools she is going to construct, where she will build and for how long. So until we talk to her, we can't comment much." He said the government will also review the memorandum of understanding it signed with Madonna to "see what it says before we can embrace her new approach".
  
  ....Chinkhota became a building site � but without a building. Construction of the academy was delayed over a dispute between the Raising Malawi charity and villagers who claimed they were not adequately compensated for land.
  
  The building was due to be completed in December this year. However, the earth-moving machines that had been landscaping the area have disappeared. Villagers feel betrayed and accuse Madonna of breaking her promise. Maxwell Matewere, Malawi's leading children's rights activist, said Madonna should not "dump" the project.
  
  Matewere, director of Eye of the Child, led two unsuccessful attempts to prevent Madonna adopting two children � David, five, and four-year-old Mercy � from Malawi after their mothers died.
  
  He said the pop star was trying to "run away from long-term obligations" and she should go ahead with the academy because "you educate a few to educate others. She must borrow a leaf from others like Oprah [Winfrey] who have done it in South Africa."
  
  ....Madonna's spokeswoman did not comment today but said she would seek further information from the singer's management.
  

oceanlover998,Jan 21 2011

05:34 PM

...Does anyone know if those displaced villagers were ever given any compensation by m for being booted off their land?

Betcha they get nuthin....

• Construction of the academy was delayed over a dispute between the Raising Malawi charity and villagers who claimed they were not adequately compensated for land.
  

anshirk

 

So typically Madoona style, I bet the other project is fake too. She is obviously inventing ways to avoid the construction, next time she will say she has no funds.

• Published: Saturday, Jan 22, 2011, 17:57 IST
  Place: London | Agency: ANI
  
  Madonna has backed down from her promise to build a 15 million dollar school in Malawi after forcing villagers to give up their ancestral land to make way for the building.
  
  Madonna, 52, had even attended a brick-laying ceremony at the Raising Malawi Girls Academy in Chinkhota, where the prestigious academy for underprivileged girls was to be constructed.
  
  The singer has now said she would instead focus on building secondary schools across the country, rather than one school.
  
  "I want to reach thousands, not hundreds of girls. I want to do more and I want to do it better," the Guardian quoted her as saying in a statement this month.
  
  The Malawian government said it had not been consulted and will now summon her to explain herself.
  
  "We'd like to know why she has changed," Peter Mutharika, the education minister, said.
  
  "Yes, we do appreciate that it is her project; she devised it and she knows best how to implement it. But still, as government, we'd be interested to know why there is this change.
  
  "I honestly don't know the number of schools she is going to construct, where she will build and for how long. So until we talk to her, we can't comment much," he stated.
  

• Madonna was accused of letting down the people of Malawi after she admitted plans for a girls school had been scrapped.
  
  Malawi’s education minister Peter Mutharika said: “As a Government we’d be interested to know why there is this change.”
  
  Madonna performed a brick-laying ceremony at the school site in Chinkhota Village, Lilongwe, in April 2010, announcing it was her dream to build a school for girls to educate future doctors and lawyers. But less than 12 months later the star is abandoning the plans, insisting she intends to create other secondary schools elsewhere in the country.
  
  The Malawian government said it had not been consulted and will now summon her to explain herself.
  
  “We’d like to know why she has changed,” Malawi’s education minister Peter Mutharika says. “Yes, we do appreciate that it is her project; she devised it and she knows best how to implement it. But still, as government, we’d be interested to know why there is this change. I honestly don’t know the number of schools she is going to construct, where she will build and for how long. So until we talk to her, we can’t comment much.”
  

• Jan 23, 2011 9:58 PM | By TimesLIVE
  IN the village of Chinkhota, Malawi, Madonna broke ground for the construction of a school for 500 underprivileged girls that would prepare them to be "future women leaders".
  
  But local elders said the pop megastar has let them down when she scrapped the building of the R106-million institution, the UK's The Guardian newspaper reported.
  
  Instead of one school, Madonna now plans to build high schools around the country, but Malawian officials know nothing of her plans.
  
  "I want to reach thousands, not hundreds, of girls," said Madonna, who has adopted two Malawian children.
  
  "I want to do more - and better."
  
  But villagers, who gave up their land for the school, are disappointed and the Malawian government plans to demand an explanation.
  
  "We'd like to know why she has changed [her mind]," said Education Minister Peter Mutharika.
  

• By The Blemish, 3:00 PM on Jan 24, 2011
  
  In April 2010, Madonna performed a brick laying ceremony in Chinkhota Village where she planned to build an all girls school to educate future doctors and lawyers called Raising Malawi Academy for Girls. Coincidentally, a couple months later her adoption of Mercy James was approved.
  
  This month, Madonna announced she was scrapping plans for the school and instead, building secondary schools elsewhere in the country. Malawi’s education minister Peter Mutharika said, “As a government, we’d be interested to know why there is a change.” Looks like Madonna and Michael Lohan went to the same school of bribery.
  

• The African nation of Malawi - the country you never knew existed until Madonna adopted a child from there to be used as a fashion accessory - is set to pass a bill that includes new laws intended to "œmold responsible and disciplined citizens."
  
  By far the most beneficial new law is the one that makes it illegal to fart in public.
  
  That's right, farting in public will no longer be just rude and discourteous to others, it will now be a crime. Which means farting will go on your criminal record.
  
  Finally, a government that isn't afraid to take on the most diabolical criminals.
  

• This is a total bummer!
  
  While it seemed Madonna's girls-only school in Malawi had been given the green light, it was discovered recently the Material Girl abandoned her plans to continue with the project, because some 200 African villagers are unwilling to part with the land it’s been designated to build on.
  
  Although the Malawi government backed the $15 million project, which will provide advanced schooling for 500 girls from underprivileged backgrounds, local villagers say they laid claim to the land long before Madonna's school construction was revealed, and are unwilling to give it up at any price.
  
  To keep the project running, the government offered the villagers new property to live on, and Madonna has even paid them compensation, more than 16 million kwacha (about $115,000), for their houses, gardens and trees.
  
  Lilongwe District Commissioner Charles Kalemba, accompanied by other government officials and representatives from Madonna's Raising Malawi charity, called a meeting with the villagers, and told them they will have to vacate. Kalemba said:
  
  "Government allowed you to occupy this land because there was no project yet. But now that Madonna wants to build you a school you have to give way. You are lucky that Madonna has compensated you for your houses, gardens and trees."
  
  Despite the fact the villagers have been told this school will greatly benefit their children, the people are unwilling to leave land that has been in their family for several generations. The property is simply worth more to them than money, or a school for girls.
  
  Until the dispute can be settled, the new leader of Madonna's project says the singer will continue to fund projects to build many more schools, with other educational groups.
  
  We hope Madonna and the villagers can work it out!
  

• Author: Roland Bankole Marke - USA
  
  Madonna, world famed 52 year-old pop superstar, has broken her promise to fund a Girl’s Academy in Malawi to the tune of $15 million.
  
  This bombshell came after local villagers had been forced by the Malawian government to give up their ancestral land to provide enough space for the construction of an ultra modern academy that would provide the facilities to educate 500 girls:
  Projected to become young women leaders in the poverty stricken African nation of Malawi, with a population of about 12 million. But half of them earn less than a dollar a day. (Madonna in Malawi at the bricklaying ceremony)
  
  It was in the village of Chinkhota in southern Malawi that Madonna broke ground for the construction of a prestigious academy for underprivileged girls. Named as a “gift” to the African country from which she has adopted two children. The $15 million institution was to accommodate the girls and groom them to be “future women leaders.” Usually under the heat of the blazing sun, boys herd goats in search of green grass.
  
  In a nearby plot a farmer would be seen weeding his maize crop. The inspiring ceremony like fanfare that had surrounded Madonna’s visit in 2009 now seems very distant, if not a nightmare.
  
  Now, village elders are accusing Madonna of letting them down, while the government has been forced to admit that it doesn’t know what her plans are, after she announced that she has abandoned her plans for the construction of the Girl’s academy.
  
  Madonna stated that she would instead focus on building secondary schools across the country, rather than planting just one school.
  
  But officials in Malawi have been left scratching their heads, wondering what this will entail. “I want to reach thousands, not hundreds of girls,” she said in a statement recently. “I want to do more and I want to do it better.”
  
  The news has shocked villagers who were forced to surrender their ancestral land to make room for the school. The Malawian government said it had not been consulted and will definitely summon the 52-year-old pop star to update them on the issue.
  
  “We’d like to know why she has changed,” said Peter Mutharika, the education minister.
  
  “Yes, we do appreciate that it is her project; she devised it and she knows best how to implement it. But still, as government, we’d be interested to know why there is this change.”
  
  Mutharika, tipped to be the next president when his brother, Bingu Wa Mutharika, ends his final term in 2014, added:
  “I honestly don’t know the number of schools she is going to construct, where she will build and for how long. So until we talk to her, we can’t comment much.” He said the government will also review the memorandum of understanding it signed with Madonna to “see what it says before we can embrace her new approach”.
  

• by Gayle MacDonald
  
  The philanthropist/humanitarian Stephen Lewis blasted Madonna Thursday, saying the pop star and other celebrities should stay out of development work because “they don’t know enough about it.”
  
  The former United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa made the comment during a radio interview in response to recent controversy over Madonna’s cancelled plans to build a $15-million all-girls school in Malawi.
  
  “I think fundamentally that celebrities should stay out of development,” he said. “They don't know how it works. They should leave it to the organizations who have some knowledge of both working with government and with communities on the ground.”
  
  Lewis conceded the singer likely “did [the project] with good faith initially” but added he was “uncomfortable about the way they turned the so-called academy into the hands of people who are obviously incompetent or greedy or untrustworthy.”
  
  Madonna bailed on the school project after the Global Philanthropy Group pointed out $3.8-million (US) had been spent on “outlandish expenses” while no ground had yet been broken in Lilongwe.
  

• Sunday April 10,2011
  By Raphael Tenthani and Barry Keevins
  
  MADONNA has been accused of “insolence” over her decision to pull the plug on building a £10million African girls’ academy.
  
  Government sources said they may even block her updated plans for several community schools after investigations uncovered millions missing from her Malawi funds.
  
  They revealed the government was unhappy with the decision to cancel the building work after corners were cut to give the go-ahead for the singer’s flagship Raising Malawi Academy for Girls. She has adopted two children, Mercy and David, from the impoverished country.
  
  Madonna, forced to deny stories last week of an FBI investigation into her charitable activities, was attacked by Malawi’s education minister Peter Mutharika after deciding to cancel the academy.
  
  An internal investigation at her charity Raising Malawi uncovered massive financial irregularities and Madonna announced in January that she would abandon the 500-pupil project in favour of community schools. Professor Mutharika told officials he was unhappy with the decision and questioned how she could be trusted to build several schools after failing to start “even the only one she promised Malawians”.
  
  A source who attended the meeting said officials had reacted angrily to the decision.
  
  “It was insolence of the highest order for Madonna to go public with new plans without consulting, even warning, the Malawi government.”
  
  Professor Mutharika insisted that the government would not have approved the change of direction.
  
  He was described as “livid” over the land deal which he claimed gave Madonna preferential treatment.
  

• Kabbalah teaches that only giving will bring a soul out of the darkness. So Madonna planned a splendid gift for an impoverished African nation. Somebody turn on the light.
  

• A program in Malawi which helps feed orphaned children is facing a financial crisis after Madonna's charity cut funding, according to a U.K. report.
  
  The pop superstar, who has adopted two children from the African nation, helped set up an organisation called Raising Malawi to aid residents of the poverty-stricken nation.
  
  The charity was thrown into chaos earlier this year (11) when plans to build a girls' school collapsed amid allegations of financial mismanagement, prompting Madonna to dissolve the foundation's board of directors.
  
  The head of a charity scheme in Malawi called Consol Homes Orphan Care, which feeds more than 24,000 children across the country, has now claimed the program is in jeopardy after money from Raising Malawi was stopped.
  
  Elicy Chapomba, co-founder and head of operations at Consol, tells Britain's The Times, "Since July last year, no money has been sent and we have resorted to borrowing from the banks."
  
  Madonna's publicist has alleged funding was cut because a Raising Malawi audit allegedly found evidence of poor financial management at the organisation, explaining, "Simple financial procedures need to be put in place ensuring that cheques are authorised, disbursements are accounted for and financial documents and resources are... handled by financial staff. Basic monitoring and evaluation of programs... is not implemented."
  

• She [Madonna] said in a statement: "There is a real education crisis in Malawi, 67 per cent of girls don't go to secondary school.
  

• Madonna plans to open an orphanage in Malawi.
  
  The 'Celebration' singer - who adopted five-year-old son David from the African country in 2006, followed by six-year-old daughter Mercy in 2009 - wants to redouble her efforts to aid orphaned children by opening a new centre as well as giving financial support to current ones.
  
  Speaking in new TV documentary 'American Revolutionaries: The Hitmakers', she said: "My short term goals are to build an orphan care centre that will service and reach at least 1,000 children and I'm also actively involved in funding several orphanages that already exist."
  
  However, Madonna's aspirations for the country were dealt a blow earlier this year after her plans to build a school for girls were "discontinued".
  
  The 52-year-old star had pledged to build an academy following her adoption of David in 2006, but the $3.8 million she had put into the project through her charitable foundation Raising Malawi failed to develop into an educational establishment.
  
  Madonna - who also has biological children Lourdes, 14, and 10-year-old Rocco - admitted she was "frustrated" at the development because of the lack of education in the country.
  
  She said in a statement: "There is a real education crisis in Malawi, 67 per cent of girls don't go to secondary school.
  
  "Our team is going to work hard to address this in every way we can."
  

• By AFP
  Published: August 8, 2011
  
  CHINKOTA:
  The abandoned site looks more like a quarried mine than a pop superstar's multi-million-dollar dream to groom girls into Malawi's next leaders and doctors. But the bleak, levelled terraces of gravelly sand near Malawi's capital are the only evidence of Madonna's $15 million academy which was ditched in a cloud over misused funds and disgruntled locals.
  
  "This has just become a football ground now," said local chief Binson Kalenga. The bulldozers are long silent where Madonna ” who adopted two children from Malawi ” laid a foundation stone engraved 'dare to dream' in April 2010, in a village in a desperately poor African country that many could not find on a map. A year later the school had been called off.
  
  The star is being sued by former employees, her charity is tied up in a US tax investigation and the Malawi government is investigating how the land was paid for. "Initially although I welcomed it, personally I was very sceptical about the whole thing," said Lilongwe district commissioner Paul Kalilombe. In January 2011, she said the academy project was off in favour of helping existing schools across the country. The New York Times reported on an audit, ordered by Madonna, and found $3.8 million squandered on the discarded academy.
  
  In Chinkhota, unhappiness began with payments to villagers for the land which Madonna's charity Raising Malawi, paid through the government. An explanation is yet to reach villagers, who have to swallow a doubly bitter pill with their former fields ruined and not a classroom in sight. "People were surprised that there is no activity," said Tsiyent Foroyati. As the biggest landowner around the school's site, she was paid 39,000 kwacha ($258) in compensation.
  
  For the school, Madonna should have worked with an existing organisation that knows "what is actually happening on the ground", said Kalilombe who believes an orphanage is planned for the academy site.
  
  "She had good intentions, but implementing the project on the ground brought a lot of complications."
  
  Chief Kalenga said he wants to ask Madonna why the project failed. "We welcomed her as a fellow Malawian," he said. "We are heartbroken because of the rumours we still hear about this project being stopped. Madonna should come and tell us what has happened."
  
  Published in The Express Tribune, August 9th, 2011.
  

• It is a far decline for the ambitious singer, who just in April 2010 laid the corner stone for the academy, with the words 'dare to dream' engraved on it.
  
  The failure has sparked anger among some residents who often held a mix of optimism and skepticism about the foreign benefactor, but hoped their corner of the world was finally being noticed.
  
  'Right from the beginning, people warned us that she was just interested in adopting the children,' says Ireen Macheso, a mother of three living in Blantyre, Malawi's economic hub.
  
  'Once that was accomplished she abandoned the school project,' charges Macheso, adding that Madonna is a 'baby snatcher.'

• August 23 2011 at 05:10pm
  
  BLANTYRE: It might just be another abandoned building project, if it was not the site of pop star Madonna's ill-fated flagship philanthropy programme in Malawi, the native country of her two adopted children.
  
  The singer's charity, Raising Malawi, planned to build a $15-million girls' academy in the outskirts of the capital, Lilongwe.
  
  In less than a year, numerous complications forced the entire construction project to grind to a halt. Now, it is little more than a sandy field were local youngsters can kick around a deflated football.
  
  Much of the $3.8 million spent so far have allegedly been squandered by managers of the project, including former executive director Phillippe van de Bossche, who is accused of using funds to buy cars and golf club memberships.
  
  Moreover, Washington is tying up the charity with a tax probe and Lilongwe is investigating how the land was purchased.
  
  And last week, in a further blow, a Malawi court ruled that former workers could sue the charity for unfair dismissal, even as the singer's lawyers says the employees were let go since Raising Malawi could not afford to keep them on.
  
  It is a far decline for the ambitious singer, who just in April 2010 laid the corner stone for the academy, with the words “dare to dream” engraved on it.
  
  The failure has sparked anger among some residents who often held a mix of optimism and scepticism about the foreign benefactor, but hoped their corner of the world was finally being noticed.
  
  “Right from the beginning, people warned us that she was just interested in adopting the children,” says Ireen Macheso, a mother of three living in Blantyre, Malawi's economic hub.
  
  “Once that was accomplished she abandoned the school project,” charges Macheso, adding that Madonna is a “baby snatcher”.
  
  Others still hold out faith the hiccups are nothing serious and the project will get back on track.
  
  “Hopes are still high … let Madonna show commitment this time around by engaging serious people to work on the project,” said Blantyre resident Peter Chiwanda.
  
  Help with young girls' education would be welcome, said Chiwanda, especially as the majority of the population is subsistence farmers.
  
  Elsewhere across the country, the singer has poured millions of dollars into feeding centres and health clinics, leaving a silver lining to the cloud hanging over her activities in Malawi.
  
  Raising Malawi has raised altogether some $18 million, much of it from Madonna's own pocket. The foundation said earlier this year, after the academy appeared doomed, that it was changing its tactic for the education project to more individualised, tailor-fitted support of youngsters.
  
  The singer's website is still taking donations for projects in one of the world's poorest nations, where many live on less than a dollar a day.
  
  A landlocked country in southern Africa, stuck under a stifling one-party rule during the Cold War and which now struggles with an HIV/Aids epidemic, Malawi was often forgotten, offering tobacco exports, general stability and little international flare.
  
  But in 2006, Madonna put the country in the limelight when she flew to the home of 15 million people to adopt little David Banda and followed shortly thereafter with the adoption of Mercy James.
  
  Many Malawians had not heard of the singer until she began her charity work and the adoption process. Even five years into her involvement in Malawi often residents still draw a blank when the name Madonna is mentioned in anything other than a religious context.
  
  Stella Mussa, a mother of two, said she only saw Madonna once, on television, when she adopted the first child. Since then she has heard nothing about the US pop icon or her school project, but is open to the proposed generosity.
  
  “The idea of a school for girls is good. I hope she will come back to Malawi to finish what she started,” Mussa said. - Sapa-dpa