(AP) MPHANDULA, Malawi - Madonna has promised electricity to a village in Malawi, the impoverished southern African country where she runs a charity organization and from which she has adopted two children.

Speaking in Mphandula, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, the singer said Thursday: "I know you work in darkness. I will bring you electricity."

Madonna’s Raising Malawi charity already has donated $500,000 for a child care center in the village that feeds and educates 3,000 orphaned children.

Madonna arrived in Malawi on Sunday accompanied by her four children. On Monday she broke ground for her $15-million Raising Malawi Academy for Girls.

About 500,000 children in this nation of 12 million have lost a parent to AIDS.