Madonna follows in Oprah’s footsteps

The material girl, Madonna, seems to be following Oprah’s footsteps by building an all girl school in a southern African country. After adopting two children from Malawi, her first in 2006 and then again last year, the pop star has decided to build a US$15 million Girls Academy to educate young black girls from poor backgrounds.

The star, her biological daughter with adopted children–David Banda and Mercy James–visited the African state this last week, leaving on Friday in a private jet to London. While there she visited Namitete, 50 kilometres outside Malawi’s administrative capital Lilongwe.

There the star funds an orphanage housing about 8 000 children, many of whose parents have died from AIDS. After being serenaded by a choir and thanked for being a mother to the village by director of the Consol Homes Orphanage Centre, she was quoted as saying “I am happy my small contribution has lifted the lives of many.”

The charity that Madonna raises in Malawi benefits some 25 000 orphans throughout the country by providing food and clothes, and now, with the Girls Academy, education. Pained at the site of suffering children, the queen of pop hopes to make the world a better place, starting in the poor African country.

As a testament to her dedication, Madonna plans on flying to what she now refers to as her second home, Malawi, twice a year.