Madonna's Charity, Raising Malawi, Facing Mounting Legal Issues as Plans for School Project Collapse

03/29/11

Trevor Neilson, co-founder and partner of the Global Philanthropy Group, a company formed to advise the world's leading philanthropists, was quoted in the March 26th article at popeater.com, ''Madonna's Plan to Build Malawi School Falls Apart'' as having said: ''Despite $3.8 million having been spent....the project has not broken ground, there was no title to the land and there was, over all, a startling lack of accountability on the part of the management team in Malawi and the management team in the United States. We have yet to determine exactly what happened to all of that $3.8 million. We have not accounted for all the funds that were used.''

Per the same article, Madonna was advised months ago by the Global Philanthropy Group that millions of dollars were being spent unwisely by the charity. At that time, the Group advised her to invest in education programs already in place, instead of attempting to launch a new school.

Scores of people had already been displaced by government authorities in Malawi so as to accommodate the school's construction.

Auditors for Madonna found that Raising Malawi Executive Director Philippe van den Bossche - who left in October - had spent nearly $4 million dollars on salaries, office space, a golf-club membership, housing and a car and driver, yet ground had never been broken for the school.

A report, provided by the Kabbalah Center read in part: "Philippe's level of mismanagement and lack of oversight was extreme . . . and the lack of success of the players on the ground is in large part a result of his inability to effectively manage project plans, people and finances."

Michael Berg, co-director of Los Angeles' Kabbalah Centre, and co-founder of Raising Malawi, was quoted as having said in a March 24th email to donors: "A thoughtful decision has been made to discontinue plans for the Raising Malawi Academy for Girls, as it was originally conceived."

In the March 26th article at popeater.com, ''Madonna's Plan to Build Malawi School Falls Apart'', Madonna was quoted as saying in a statement last Thursday that: ''There's a real education crisis in Malawi....67 percent of girls don't go to secondary school, and this is simply unacceptable. Our team is going to work hard to address this in every way we can.''

The charity's board of directors was terminated, and Madonna and her manager have replaced them in a newly formed 'caretaker board.' Now, in addition to the issues surrounding the school project, those eight board members are suing Madonna for wrongful termination and non-payment of benefits, according to the March 27th article at today.msnbc.msn.com, ''Malawi charity workers sue Madonna over payment''.

According to the same article, Mzondi Chirambo, the legal representative for the board members, was quoted as saying: ''Their employment was terminated by the trustees of Raising Malawi Academy for Girls ostensibly following the change of plan not to build the school as planned. My clients are also being forced to sign a discriminatory termination agreement before they are paid their benefits.''

Madonna has donated $11 million to the Raising Malawi foundation. She also adopted two children from the African nation, David and Mercy.

According to the Raising Malawi website, Malawi is a small nation with a population of over 14 million people. Madonna and Michael Berg founded Raising Malawi in 2006 with the goal of ending the hardships faced by the country's 2 million children, many of whom have been orphaned by parents lost to HIV/AIDS.