Madonna will visit Malawi to observe the progress of the school for girls she is building through her charity, Raising Malawi. Her charity helps feed, educate and provide medical care for some of Malawi's orphans. The country is one of the poorest nations in the world; out of 12 million people, half a million children have lost a parent to AIDS. During her visit, Madonna will visit several orphanages and meet with President Bingu wa Mutharika. Madonna controversially adopted two children from Malawi, her 4-year-old son David and 3-year-old daughter Mercy.
I think she's preparing to purchase another child from there.
ReplyDeleteThe charity (PR firm) 'Raising Malawi' founded by Madonna AND TWO OTHERS three years ago held fund raisers for over two years before finally getting registered as a non-profit. In other words, Madonna and the others were free to squander the lion's share of that funding any way they saw fit for those first two years. She also pleaded with her fans worldwide for donations along the way. In the meantime, she toured the world to promote her latest CD and raked in another $280,000,000 in just over 12 months. To date, the basic financial info for 'Rasing Malawi' still hasn't been posted on the website or anywhere else. The 'progress' page only tells of the collective works by over 20 seperate charities. Each of which have their own sources of funding and may have recieved some sort of promotion or support from 'Raising Malawi' in order to be considered 'partners'. But no indication is made how much of their funding came from 'Raising Malawi' or how much of their progress if any could be directly attributed to 'Raising Malawi'. The fans/donors have no clue how many millions of dollars were raised in that first two years, no clue how much Madonna herself chipped in, and no clue how the money was spent before they finally registered as a non-profit. No clue what tiny little fraction of funding or works listed on that 'progress' page could be directly attributed to 'Raising Malawi'. Nothing to go on but the vague word of Madonna. But I can tell you this: I called their office in an attempt to verify some sort of efficient financial operation (310) 867-2881 or (888) 72-DONOR). I got nothing but recorded messages and hangups. So I did some research on my own. 'Rasing Malawi' still hasn't been given any kind of rating by ANY independent charity watchdog like Charitywatch.org. The vast overwhelming majority of 'celebrity' foundations never are. In general, they are inneficient and riddled with corruption. Like the promotion of CDs, world tours, commercial websites, entire lines of jewelry (not just the single piece from which proceeds are donated), and high end fashion retail flagship stores. Celebrity foundations are also notorious for squandering much of their funding on travel and super high end accomodations for their celebrity figure heads. Its legal but not noble or efficient by any stretch of the imagination. In general, 'celebrity' foundations are a twisted inefficient mutant of charity and PR crap. So if its not rated, then don't support it. Instead, support a top rated charity like those given high ratings at Charitywatch.org.
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