Pop
diva Madonna and her two adopted Malawian children have flown into the
impoverished southern African nation to inspect a hospital project she
is funding there, her charity Raising Malawi said July 8.
It
is the first time in nearly two years that Madonna has visited the
country, where she has at times been embroiled in controversy after her
adoption of David Banda in 2006 and Mercy James in 2009.
She
is reportedly the biggest individual donor to children’s projects such
as orphanages in Malawi, which is ranked by the UN Human Development
Index as one of the world’s 20 least developed countries.
Her
latest project is a 50-bed surgical unit for children at the Queen
Elizabeth hospital in the commercial capital Blantyre, complete with
three operating theatres, a day clinic and the country’s first
paediatric intensive care unit.
“The
facility being funded by Madonna will greatly assist us because it will
be particularly equipped for children’s surgery,” paediatric specialist
Eric Borgstein told AFP.
Borgstein, who is a partner in
Raising Malawi and one of just three paediatric surgeons in the country,
said the unit would double the hospital’s capacity for surgery on
children.
The
current intensive care unit of the poorly-equipped hospital, which was
built in 1958 and serves the 600,000 population in Blantyre, has just
four beds.
Madonna,
who has reportedly rented the entire upmarket Kumbali Country Lodge
near the capital Lilongwe to ensure her privacy, will visit the project
on July 10.
It is due to be completed by the end of the year.
Madonna has in the past said Malawi was “special because that’s where I adopted my two children”.
But her enthusiasm hasn’t always been reciprocated.
She
was stripped of her VIP status by former president Joyce Banda in 2013
amid controversy over the cancellation of plans for a $15 million
academy for girls when it became mired in allegations of mismanagement.
Banda’s
government accused Madonna of being “uncouth” and of bullying state
officials, saying she “wants Malawi to be forever chained to the
obligation of gratitude” for having adopted two Malawian children.
But
Banda was ousted in 2014 elections and the new president, Peter
Mutharika, moved to repair relations, saying “my government has always
been grateful for the passion Madonna has for this country”.