Yesterday, the singer mingled with sick children and their mothers at Malawi's biggest hospital, the Queen Elizabeth Central in the commercial capital, Blantyre.
"I'm happy to be associated with the future of your beautiful country. Children are your future," she told the hospital staff as she launched the construction of a two-storey, 50-bed paediatric ward at the hospital.
Raising Malawi, the charity Madonna created in 2006 when she adopted her son David, has funded the training of paediatric surgeons to work in the ward.
"The new facility will double the number of surgeries for children performed at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital and will provide the first dedicated paediatrics intensive care unit in the country," the charity's director, Sarah Ezzy, said.
Madonna, accompanied by Mercy, carried sick babies and joked with their mothers, trying out her rudimentary grasp of Chichewa - Malawi's lingua franca.
"Muli bwanji?" she attempted a local greeting before quipping: "I'm now a Malawian."
She was accompanied to the hospital by Mercy and Rocco, her 14-year-old son with British film director Guy Ritchie.
Madonna was today to meet Malawi's new President Peter Mutharika - who took over from Joyce Banda after elections in May - for talks at his official residence, the Kamuzu Palace.
"We welcome Madonna as guest of the Government and people of Malawi," said the President's press secretary, Frederick Ndala.
"The President appreciates the charity work she is doing for the people of Malawi."
Madonna and Banda had a series of public disagreements after the pop star sacked the leader's sister, Anjimile Mtila-Oponyo, as head of her charity.
