Raising Malawi

One of Raising Malawi's major focus areas is funding education projects. Raising Malawi supports the basic education needs of Malawi orphans, including academic scholarships, school uniforms, and learning materials. Raising Malawi sponsors 600 children at a Malawian orphanage with educational funding, vocational scholarships and an HIV awareness soccer program.[5]

Madonna had co-sponsored investments into building a school, Raising Malawi Academy for Girls. The project however was scrapped due to financial & tax irregularities.[6] In January 2012, Raising Malawi announced a partnership with buildOn to build 10 primary schools to serve over 1,000 children in Malawi. Children will receive primary education support, including academic scholarships, school uniforms, and learning materials. They will benefit from the construction of new or renovated primary and secondary schools.[7][8]

In December 2014 it was announced that Madonna's Raising Malawi organization completed ten schools to educate 4,871 children in different locations in Malawi. The enterprise is in association with buildOn and follows the original announcement of building an Academy for Girls which was scrapped. Instead the schools will benefit children of all sexes and the project was completed within twelve months, six months ahead of schedule.[1]

As of 2020 Raising Malawi and buildOn have built 14 primary schools in rural Malawi and educated community members about the importance of girls’ education. Students who attend these schools no longer have to walk miles to reach a school in a neighboring village, learn math under a tree or study their ABCs under a thatched roof. Today, the Raising Malawi schools serve nearly 10,000 students, fulfilling Madonna’s commitment to making learning and school accessible to Malawian youth. [9]

Fifty percent of Malawi's population is under 15 years of age, making pediatric care a top priority for the country.[10] Raising Malawi has addressed this need since 2008 by supporting the pediatric surgery program at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, the country's commercial capital. Queen Elizabeth is the largest hospital in Malawi and serves a population of 700,000 people annually. It is also a public hospital meaning services are free. At Queen Elizabeth, Raising Malawi partners with one of only three pediatric surgeons in Malawi, who performs hundreds of life-saving surgeries annually and teaches local medical students and clinicians. Raising Malawi recently expanded its pediatric surgery work at Queen Elizabeth by launching a project with the Malawi Ministry of Health to construct a pediatric surgery and intensive care unit (ICU) at the hospital. The facility will include the country's first pediatric ICU, will double the number of life-saving surgeries, and will improve longer health outcomes for children who are currently dying as they wait for ICU beds.[11] Raising Malawi also collaborates with the Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation to bring Grassroot Soccer (GRS), a HIV/AIDS prevention and testing program, into the communities where Raising Malawi is active. GRS is also active in the Mulanje region, one of the highest HIV infection areas in the country.[12]

Following an audit by the Global Philanthropy Group, which questioned expenditure on salaries and benefits as well as the management capacity and culture, the charity's school headmistress was fired in October 2010. In January 2011 it was announced that plans to build a school, the charity's flagship project, were abandoned.[13] In March 2011 the Board of Directors was removed. The collapse of the school project resulted in labour disputes and complicated a dispute with villagers who lost land to the project.[14] It also resulted in a legal suit by former employees at the school for wrongful termination.[6]