{"id":7473,"date":"2012-02-25T13:44:35","date_gmt":"2012-02-25T13:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/?p=7473"},"modified":"2012-02-25T13:44:35","modified_gmt":"2012-02-25T13:44:35","slug":"madonnas-new-schools-pledge-angers-malawi-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/2012\/02\/25\/madonnas-new-schools-pledge-angers-malawi-officials\/","title":{"rendered":"Madonna\u2019s new schools pledge angers Malawi officials"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Superstar promises to build 10 schools after scrapping plan for girls\u2019 academy but officials say there has been no consultation<\/p>\n

Education officials in Malawi have attacked Madonna for unveiling plans to build 10 schools in the country, a year after she was forced to scrap a project to build a girls\u2019 academy.<\/p>\n

Madonna, who has adopted two children from the impoverished African country, announced last month that her Raising Malawi charity was teaming up with the non-profit group buildOn to create the 10 schools instead.<\/p>\n

But John Bisika, Malawi\u2019s national secretary for education, science and technology, told the Guardian: \u201cWe have had no written or verbal communication. We just read about it in the papers. I don\u2019t understand how she can work like that. For someone to go to the papers and say, \u2018I\u2019m building schools\u2019, without telling the government, I find it a strange way of working.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWhen will she build these schools? How will we know where these schools are needed? We need to do this in a co-ordinated manner. I wouldn\u2019t just go to the UK and start building schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be approached and work out where the schools are needed, based on school mapping. If she doesn\u2019t come through us, it will not happen. We can\u2019t just see people building schools. Let\u2019s do it properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The singer\u2019s initial plan to construct a $15m (\u00a39.4m) school for about 400 girls just outside the capital, Lilongwe, was scrapped last year without a brick being laid. The board of Raising Malawi was fired.<\/p>\n

Bisika said: \u201cShe told us she would build an academy for girls. We gave her land and had a ground-breaking ceremony. The next thing we hear is the plan has been abandoned. We\u2019re disappointed in the manner in which it was done. This is not the way to do things. We need to understand why. She told us she was going to establish an academy and it didn\u2019t take root, so what future is there? It is a mockery of the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

But a spokeswoman for Madonna disputed the claim that there was a lack of consultation, showing the Guardian a letter addressed to Malawi\u2019s education minister from the Global Philanthropy Group, which manages Raising Malawi.<\/p>\n

The letter, dated January 30, reads: \u201cIt is with great pleasure that I write to you today to inform you of Madonna\u2019s ongoing commitment to the children of Malawi and Raising Malawi\u2019s plans to partner with the organisation buildOn to construct 10 new schools in the district of Kasungu.\u201d<\/p>\n

It adds: \u201cAs we pursue this community-based approach to school construction, Raising Malawi would like to graciously return the land in Chinkhota granted to us by the government for the original Raising Malawi Academy for Girls project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Civil society activists in Malawi remain suspicious of Madonna\u2019s motives. The Rev MacDonald Sembereka, acting national co-ordinator of the human rights consultative committee, said: \u201cMy fear is that Madonna is using money to raise money for herself or moving the goalposts. We don\u2019t know if the new plan will be effective because we can\u2019t trust her any more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill these schools be an entry point for Kabbalah [a mystical offshoot of Judaism followed by Madonna] in Malawi or places where children can practice their faith without being brainwashed? That is not clear. We are worried about what we don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Undule Mwakasungula, executive director of the Centre for Human Rights Rehabilitation, which challenged Madonna\u2019s adoption of the two children, said: \u201cWe got very excited and rolled out the red carpet but I think Madonna was dishonest from the beginning. The government gave her land and moved Malawians. It\u2019s now empty. How are we going to make her accountable? Can we believe her? She has not explained why the last one failed. How can we be sure she will do what she promises? Otherwise she\u2019s just playing games with Malawians.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Superstar promises to build 10 schools after scrapping plan for girls\u2019 academy but officials say there has been no consultation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[1516,515,286,258,1654,425],"class_list":["post-7473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","tag-cso","tag-government","tag-madonna","tag-malawi","tag-pop","tag-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}