Madonna teams up with Gucci to raise funds for Malawi orphans

Pop diva Madonna has teamed up with luxury goods-maker Gucci to raise funds for orphans in Malawi, the home of her nearly-adopted tot David Banda.

Melbourne, Nov 16 : Pop diva Madonna has teamed up with luxury goods-maker Gucci to raise funds for orphans in Malawi, the home of her nearly-adopted tot David Banda.

Madge and Gucci will host a fund-raising event with dinner, a musical gig and a bash on Feb 6 in 2008 to launch Gucci's largest store in the world, on New York's Fifth Avenue.

The American pop star has revealed that the event will aid UNICEF and the charity she co-founded in 2006, Raising Malawi.

The charity aims at ending poverty and hardship suffered by Malawi's 1 million orphans, many of whose parents died of AIDS.

"I am grateful that Gucci is joining forces with me to bring attention to a country with millions of children in desperate need of our help," the age.com.au quoted Madonna, as saying.

"Raising Malawi has already done tremendous work in helping these children. But we have much more to do and this event will surely bring us closer to our goal," she added.

The event will hopefully raise at least 2 million dollars with Madonna joined by a list of celebrity co-chairs for the event, including Adrien Brody, Arpad Busson, Salma Hayek and Francois-Henri Pinault, Tea Leoni, Lucy Liu, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher and Gwyneth Paltrow.

As for Madonna's adoption case, the High Court in Malawi is to hold a hearing in 2008 to decide whether Madonna and Ritchie are suitable parents for David.

ANI