Madonna’s charity director denies reports of villagers’ anger over school

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LONDON - Madonna’s Raising Malawi charity director has lashed out at reports that the singer is facing problems from the locals over the construction of her school in the country, and insists the project has the “support of the village”.

Phillip Van den Bosche came to the star’s defence after reports suggested that residents of the government-owned land, Madonna has leased to house a 9-million-pound academy for 200 local girls, are angry over the amount of compensation they have received to move home.

The reports stated that the villagers feel they have been short-changed by Madonna over their 71,000 pounds compensation.

The villagers were warned they faced prosecution if they do not make way for the facility outside the capital Lilongwe after construction began last year in October.

But Van den Bosche insists the claims are “ridiculous” and locals are happy about the school.

“If you visited the land prior to this allocation, you would have found that there were at the most one or two small huts,” the Daily Express quoted him as saying.

“The people who were on the land now have an equivalent plot of agricultural land where they can continue their farming… The community will be enhanced by this.

“It was a done deal but of course whenever Madonna’s name is involved, opportunism is involved.

“The thought that Madonna would be going on this land to take something away or to hurt people or to bulldoze people out of their homes is ridiculous. The school is built to build cultural pride, not to destroy it.

“Madonna is a donor to this project - she’s just one of many donors to it, and she has taken the creation of the girls academy on as a pet project of hers, it’s something she feels very connected to.

“But it’s not really her school, it’s a collaboration. We believe it’s a beautiful project and we have the support of the village,” he added. (ANI)