Madonna Plants a Tree in Malawi

The singer is funding a girls school set to open in 2011

The Material Mom got her hands dirty in Malawi.

Madonna planted a tree during a ground breaking ceremony for the all-girls school she is funding in the impoverished African country where she adopted two of children.

Sporting black strappy heels and a dark-colored summer dress, the 51-year-old singing icon dug into the soil with a shovel and helped plant a Moringa tree as part of the kick off festivities for the construction of the $15 million Raising Malawi Academy for Girls, according to the British newspaper The Telegraph.

Madonna had the help of Lourdes, who, along with the singer's three other children, accompanied her mom to the country on Sunday.

"If this school is a success -- with God willing it will be -- we will replicate it not only in Malawi but in other parts of the world as well," Madonna said at the ceremony.

 The school is set to open in 2011 and will focus on science and math, its future principal told the paper.

"Madonna did not accept that Malawian women would not study science to become doctors," soon-to-be principal Anjimile Mtila-Opponyo told the Telegraph.

Contact Us