Much like what Oprah did in South Africa, Madonna is now build­ing a girl’s school in Malawi. Madonna she was inspired by the strength of Malaw­ian woman, so she wanted to do some­thing for them. Social bar­ri­ers in the coun­try keep girls from learn­ing math and sci­ence, so this new school will con­cen­trate on those subjects.

From the Mer­cury, Asso­ci­ated Press writer Raphael Ten­thani attended the school’s dedication.

Madonna marked the start of con­struc­tion of her school for girls in Malawi by plant­ing a tree at the planned site of the $15 mil­lion school. The 51-year-old celebrity arrived in the impov­er­ished south­ern African coun­try on Sun­day accom­pa­nied by her four chil­dren — daugh­ters Lour­des and Mercy, and sons Rocco and David.

Madonna adopted Mercy from Malawi ear­lier this year and adopted David from the coun­try in 2008.

The singer was dressed in a dark sum­mer dress and a col­or­ful shawl dur­ing Monday’s cer­e­mony in the town of Chinkhota, some six miles (10 kilo­me­ters) from the cap­i­tal, Lilongwe. Together with eldest daugh­ter Lour­des she planted a Moringa tree, a hardy tree with edi­ble leaves.

“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,” she said.

The new school will be called the Rais­ing Malawi Acad­emy for Girls and will open by 2011 and edu­cate 500 stu­dents, said its future prin­ci­pal, Anjim­ile Mtila-Opponyo. It will be sim­i­lar to the school built by TV talk show host Oprah Win­frey in South Africa.

Mtila-Opponyo said the cur­ricu­lum will empha­size sci­ence and mathematics.

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