LILONGWE, April 5, 2010 (AFP) — US pop star Madonna arrived in Malawi yesterday ahead of a brick-laying ceremony at the 15-million dollar girls’ academy that her charity is building.

“She will lay the first brick at the site today,” Anjimile Mtila-Oponyo, chief executive officer for the academy, told AFP.

The singer arrived with her biological children Rocco and Lourdes and two adopted Malawian children David Banda and Chifundo ‘Mercy’ James, Mtila-Oponyo said.

On Monday, she visited a poverty alleviation project in the Mchinji district where she controversially adopted Banda from an orphanage in 2006.

The singer will be accompanied by American economist Jeffrey Sachs, a special advisor to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and founder of the project which has 14 villages in 10 African countries.

Madonna, who funds several initiatives in Malawi, broke the ground in October last year for the school, which will admit 500 girls from poor backgrounds.

Construction of the academy was delayed over a dispute between her charity and some 200 villagers who claimed they were not adequately compensated for land used to build the school.

The government forcibly removed the villagers, who were paid 500,000 dollars in compensation by Madonna’s charity.

Malawi is one of the world’s poorest nations, with more than half of the population of 13 million living on less than one dollar a day.