Madonna Launches Construction Of Malawi School

Madonna launched the construction of a multi-million dollar girls' school by planting a Moringa tree in a village north of Lilongwe, Malawi on Monday (October 26). The 51-year-old Queen of Pop was joined by her 13-year-old daughter Lourdes.

The Raising Malawi Academy for Girls - in Chinkhota village about 15 kilometers outside the capital Lilongwe - is expected to cost $15 million and be completed in two years. It will admit 500 girls from the small southern African country's 28 districts. Madonna spoke to ABC News about the importance of an education and her reasons for going ahead with this multi-million dollar project:

Growing up in a privileged life, I took education for granted...but coming to Malawi has taught me a lot of things and (I have) learnt to appreciate what life gives," Madonna said. “I realized how much they deserve to be educated and so for me the best thing I could do was to build a school, a unique school that will create future female leaders, scientists, lawyers, doctors and if this school is successful it will be used as a model to replicate it in other countries.”

Madonna adopted two of her children from Malawi: David, 4, and Mercy, 3