Wearing a T-shirt proclaiming “Love” and dancing to the rhythm of a pop song, Madonna opened a day care center Thursday, one of the projects she is funding in impoverished, disease-stricken Malawi.

The pop star and the Malawian toddler she wants to adopt, David Banda, were greeted by singing children as she toured the project, which is being run by a local charity Consol Homes.

The center will eventually provide education and food for up to 4,000 children from surrounding rural areas, trying to break the vicious cycle of lack of education, hunger and sickness that afflicts many Malawians.

“You should not expect much from me alone but we are working together as a partnership,” Madonna told local officials.

The pop star caused international controversy last year when she took then 14-month-old David from a Malawian orphanage back to London. Critics accused her of using her celebrity status to flout Malawian restrictions on adoptions. Her latest visit to Malawi, to check on projects run by her Raising Malawi organization, has won praise from many here who say she has shown she cares about their plight.

Tight security has accompanied the star throughout her stay and it remains unclear whether she has met with Yohane Banda, father of David. The boy’s mother died in childbirth and his father sent him to an orphanage, saying he was too poor to care for him.

Madonna’s entourage visited David’s old orphanage on Tuesday. Thursday, she hushed the boy, clad in blue dungarees, at the day care center when he cried after being handed to a nanny.

The director of Consol Homes, Jacinta Chapombsa, said parents would be able to bring their children to the day care center safe in the knowledge they would receive a basic education and food.

Local children performed the Paul Simon-Joseph Shabalala hit “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes”, playing traditional instruments and singing. Madonna danced to the refrain.