Madonna on humanitarian aid tour to Malawi

Renowned American pop star Madonna Wednesday morning arrived in Malawi for a two-day humanitarian visit that will culminate into her adopting of an orphan and launch of several projects.

Principal Secretary for Gender and Child Welfare Services Andrina Mchiela told journalists that the pop star was in the country to adopt an orphan and launch six projects for Malawi's underprivileged children who have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS.

After her arrival, Madonna visited Mphandula village located 50 km outside the capital where she would set up one of her projects. The project would be an education and feeding center for orphaned children.

She would also visit Malawi's commercial capital Blantyre on Thursday where she would also launch some of her humanitarian projects.

Malawi, like most southern African countries, is grappling with the impact of HIV/AIDS through which close to a million children have been orphaned due to deaths of parents and guardians.

It is estimated that the country has close to a million people living with HIV/AIDS. The epidemic has halved Malawi's life expectancy from about 60 years in the early 1990s to about 35 years presently.

Madonna recently unveiled her intention to raise about 3 million U.S. dollars to support HIV/AIDS orphans in Malawi.

Her visit to Malawi has closely followed another humanitarian visit by former U.S. president Bill Clinton and Scottish philanthropist Thom Hunter, who have jointly launched a development program targeting the country's majority rural poor.

Malawi currently has managed to put close to 80,000 HIV infected people on free life prolonging drugs of the total 170,000 infected people who currently require the drugs.

Source: Xinhua