Madonna And Gucci Hookup to Help Malawi

Dec 3 | archive | subscribe

Madonna is joining forces with fashion powerhouse Gucci to raise funds for orphans in Malawi, from where she has been trying to adopt a child since last year.

The philanthropist/singer and Gucci will host a fundraising event with dinner, musical performance and a party on Feb. 6 next year to mark the opening of Gucci’s new behemoth store on New York’s Fifth Avenue, their largest store in the world.

The event will benefit UNICEF and the charity she co-founded in 2006, Raising Malawi, which focuses on trying to end the poverty and hardship suffered by Malawi’s one million orphans, many of whose parents died of AIDS.

In a statement Madonna said. "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."

The New York event is expected to raise at least $2 million.  Madonna’s co-chairs include a list of celebrities including Adrien Brody, Arpad Busson, Salma Hayek and Francois-Henri Pinault, Tea Leoni, Lucy Liu, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher and Gwyneth Paltrow.

French retailer PPR, which owns Gucci, has been a UNICEF corporate partner since 2004.

‘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.’ Madonna added.

Caryl Stern, president and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, thanked Madonna and Gucci and said AIDS remained one of the most devastating public health problems in recent history.

"Every day, 6,000 children lose a parent to AIDS, and 1,400 children die from AIDS," Stern said in the statement. raisingmalawi.org