Madonna’s school in Malawi won’t be built

The singer pledged to build a school for girls in the African country following the adoption of her son David, now 5 years old, in 2006. However, the $ 3.8 million she invested in this project through her foundation Raising Malawi were reportedly not used to build an educational institution.

Cars, golf memberships, and a chauffeur for the school’s director were concerns of financial mismanagement that arose in recent months.

In an email sent to supporters of the foundation, Michael Berg, who co-founded this organization with the singer, revealed that the original plans can’t be put in practice.

Berg explained: “A thoughtful decision has been made to discontinue plans for the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls, as it was originally conceived.”

Madonna is said to be very disappointed and frustrated with the lack of development in this project because of lack of the education in this country. She said: “There’s a real education crisis in Malawi….67 percent of girls don’t go to secondary school, and this is simply unacceptable. Our team is going to work hard to address this in every way we can.” In acknowledgment of her charity’s failings, she commented, “I’m frustrated that our education work has not moved forward in a faster way.”

However, no one has yet explained clearly what happened to the 3.8 million that were used to build this school.

Trevor Neilson of the Global Philanthropy Group studied Raising Malawi’s mistakes and told the Times, “Despite $3.8 million having been spent….the project has not broken ground, there was no title to the land and there was, over all, a startling lack of accountability on the part of the management team in Malawi and the management team in the United States.”

He added, “We have yet to determine exactly what happened to all of that $3.8 million. We have not accounted for all the funds that were used.”