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Post by Blaque on Oct 4, 2006 17:44:30 GMT -5
LILONGWE (Reuters) - Pop diva Madonna adopted a young boy in Malawi on Wednesday and moved ahead with plans to fund a center for 1,000 orphans, many of whom lost parents to AIDS in the impoverished African nation.
The "Material Girl" and an entourage arrived in the Malawian capital Lilongwe by private plane early on Wednesday and were quickly whisked away to an undisclosed location in a fleet of cars and trucks.
Government officials said the 48-year-old singer, already a mother of two, chose the one-year-old orphan from among 12 children specially chosen prior to her arrival in the country, which has legions of children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic.
"She asked us to identify boys only, which we have done after visiting four orphanages in Lilongwe," government spokeswoman Adrina Michiela said. Michiela said Madonna had wanted to adopt a girl but changed her mind two weeks ago.
It was unclear whether Madonna, for whom Malawi waived its ban on non-resident adoptions, would leave the country with her adopted baby or whether they would be reunited at a later date.
The trip has stoked high expectations in Malawi, a nation of 13 million people who are dependent on tobacco exports.
Madonna has said she plans to spend at least $3 million on programs to support orphans in Malawi and another $1 million to fund a documentary about the plight of children in the country.
She traveled to Mphandula, a village 20 km (12.5 miles) outside Lilongwe, where she is funding the construction of the Raising Malawi center to feed and educate around 1,000 orphans.
Residents in Mphandula, which has no electricity, were earlier busy rehearsing songs and preparing for her arrival.
Critics have described the project as a publicity stunt that follows in the footsteps of other celebrities, including actress Angelina Jolie, who have taken up causes on the world's poorest continent.
As part of their studies, orphans at the center will be taught a curriculum based on Spirituality for Kids linked to the Kabbalah school of mysticism to which Madonna adheres.
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sweetpie
B.E. Staff Sergeant
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Post by sweetpie on Oct 5, 2006 4:38:13 GMT -5
On an "It makes sense" note I'd say she is doing a good thing helping the orphans like that. I never really agreed with white folx adopting black children, but as they say a parent is better than no parent. Don't get me wrong it's cool but help coming from someone black means more to me. If what I am saying sounds racist, I guess it's because I am expecting more from black folx... now that might be a tall order as it stands.
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Post by Blaque on Oct 5, 2006 14:42:50 GMT -5
I expect more from Black people too. Why aren't more Black celebrities adopting these children?
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Post by dolphinfan on Oct 15, 2006 0:10:42 GMT -5
I expect more from Black people too. Why aren't more Black celebrities adopting these children? For the same reason, they ain't spending time, in our rotting neighborhoods!!!!, it ain't worth it , to them. we spend too much money in Africa, instead of , FIRST!!!!!!!! shoring up our homes. Black baby's are orphans too, over here!!!, we have shanty towns. Aids, and other disease's are ramped in our city's. We need good schools too!!!. We do more for other country's, then we do for ourselves, look at New Orleans!!!!, Detroit. I'm not saying DON'T give, I'm saying TAKE CARE OF HOME FIRST, THEN TAKE CARE OF OTHERS!!!!!. WE GET THIS FROM WHITE FOLKS!!. I'm sure Madonna could have gotten a child from Italy, France, Spain, or Britain. But it looks better, if it comes from Africa, you get more EXPOSURE, nothings really solved, but, you get GREAT exposure.
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Post by olamilove on Oct 20, 2006 6:41:16 GMT -5
I think i share from Blaque's point of view,that Blacks should do same.Normally you cannot satisfy evreybody.Added to that based on Dolphinphan's is "charity begins at home"
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Post by Blaque on Oct 22, 2006 16:03:02 GMT -5
a new twist...
Father: I didn't want Madonna adoption
LIPUNGA, Malawi (Reuters) -- The father of the Malawian boy Madonna plans to adopt added a fresh twist to the saga, saying he never intended his son to be adopted by the pop diva, but only for her to raise the child on his behalf.
In an interview with Reuters Television in his home village of Lipunga on Saturday, Yohane Banda said Madonna asked that she be able to raise his one-year-old son on his behalf, rather than that the child should become her own.
Banda's statement is a major shift from his earlier remarks last week when he railed against human rights groups that have gone to court to stop Madonna from adopting his son David.
"Had they told us that Madonna wanted to adopt my son and make him her own son, we would not have agreed to that," Banda said in his local language of Chichewa.
"It would have been better for him to continue staying at the orphanage because I see no reason why my child should be given away forever when I can feed him," he said, speaking at his village of Lipunga near the Zambia border late on Saturday.
Madonna, 48, has angered rights groups with her plan to adopt young David Banda, who left his native country on Tuesday last week for the entertainer's home in London after she was granted temporary adoption rights by Malawi authorities.
The High Court in Lilongwe will on Friday start hearing the case lodged by the Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC), an alliance of 67 human rights groups, which argues current Malawi laws forbid international adoption, even by celebrities.
Banda told Reuters he signed papers he could not understand, but government officials assured him that the agreement was similar to what he had with the orphanage -- to nurture and educate the boy but not take him away for good.
"I cannot read and write so I relied on what the (government) officials told me that the papers said Madonna would look after the child the way the orphanage planned to educate him and then he comes back to me," Banda said.
Asked if he had any copies of the agreements he signed with Madonna, Banda said: "I am still waiting to get my copies."
He said the copies were still in the hands of the government officials who mediated the agreement. Banda said he would wait to see them before deciding what action to take after consultations with his mother and other family members.
Government officials were not immediately available to comment.
Banda said he gave the boy to the orphanage mainly for medical care and breast-feeding after the boy's mother died of malaria days after giving birth to him.
"We sent this child to an orphanage because at one month we could not look after him, we did not have a health center nearby and the orphanage was the ideal place for him," he said.
The American singer, who is married to British film director Guy Ritchie, hopes to make David a brother to her 10-year-old daughter Lourdes and son, Rocco, who is six. She has denied cutting corners to speed the adoption process.
David will stay abroad with Madonna for 18 months and be monitored by Malawi officials before final approval can be given for him to officially join her family.
Banda said people did not give him a chance to explain his position better because the media was only interested in knowing about David and Madonna.
"What we agreed with Madonna was that she looks after my child until he finishes school, becomes independent and comes back home to us," Banda said.
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sweetpie
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Post by sweetpie on Oct 22, 2006 18:47:45 GMT -5
He thought he should BELIEVE this? Bottom line he could not take care of the child in the first place. So someone with a lot of duckets offers to take the child... and he THINKS they will GIVE the child BACK? What planet is he on? We all know when people take a child they DON'T give the child back without a fight. If you give up your parental rights you have no more rights or any say about what happens to your child period. Does anyone honestly think that this child is going back to live? After being exposed to "the life" will he go back? Maybe and that is a huge maybe. If the father wanted help for his son then he needs to let it happen there will always be some sort of stipulation, this is the consequences of the decision he made. I know I sound callous to his predicament but there have been other parents that have made worse decisions than this.
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Post by Blaque on Oct 23, 2006 9:22:24 GMT -5
This story is just so complicated. My first question is why was the little boy in an Orphanage if the father is still alive. I’m assuming that the father couldn’t take care of the little boy. Once he put the child in an Orphanage, he shouldn’t really have a say so as to what happens next. This is why I say that if Madonna wanted to help a child…any child…there are plenty of children in the US available for adoption.
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sweetpie
B.E. Staff Sergeant
Posts: 2,081
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Post by sweetpie on Oct 23, 2006 20:41:36 GMT -5
This story is just so complicated. My first question is why was the little boy in an Orphanage if the father is still alive. I’m assuming that the father couldn’t take care of the little boy. Once he put the child in an Orphanage, he shouldn’t really have a say so as to what happens next. This is why I say that if Madonna wanted to help a child…any child…there are plenty of children in the US available for adoption. You see that is my take on this, why was the child in the orphanage if he COULD take care of him? Okay so we know the father COULD NOT take care of him as to the reason. Was the orphanage a BETTER option? Maybe in that country. If he wanted no part of this he should have said no from the jump. He must have believed that the child would have a better life. If he was in a better position the child would not be with Madonna. What more can he do for him besides offer him a life in poverty? I think the father is being a little selfish, not in the love for his child but the support he is (in reality) not able to give him. She took a child from another country to avoid the obvious hullabaloo she would most certainly get here. Imagine it the media would know EVERYTHING about the case and put their slant on it truthful or not. In this particular situation nobody knows the real scoop.
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cinnaroll32
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Happiness is the key.
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Post by cinnaroll32 on Oct 24, 2006 10:06:59 GMT -5
Ok, now he is saying that he misunderstood. He said he taught that he was signing papers for her to care and educate his son. I don't know. www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,223423,00.html
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Post by Blaque on Oct 24, 2006 10:30:56 GMT -5
I just don’t know what to make of this story anymore.
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Post by Blaque on Oct 25, 2006 11:13:56 GMT -5
NEW YORK (AP) -- Madonna said the 13-month-old boy she plans to adopt from the African country of Malawi is healthy and thriving in her London home, in an interview that aired Wednesday on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
The child, David Banda, was taken to London last week after Malawi's High Court granted Madonna and her husband, director Guy Ritchie, an interim adoption order.
Madonna said David was healthy, despite having overcome malaria and tuberculosis. The interview was taped Tuesday via satellite from London.
"David is amazing," the 48-year-old pop star said. "What really surprises me is how great my children are with him and how he's transitioned so easily from living in Africa in an orphanage to living in our house."
David's father, Yohane Banda, has said he didn't understand the adoption meant he would give up custody of his son "for good."
But in an interview posted Tuesday on Time magazine's Web site, Banda said he will not contest the adoption.
"I don't want my child, who is already gone, to come back," he said. "I will be killing his future if I accept that."
Banda has said he is too poor to raise David.
Madonna said she met Banda, who thanked her for giving his son a new life. "I sat in that room, I looked into that man's eyes," she said.
The 30-minute interview with Winfrey was the first time Madonna had spoken on TV about the adoption, which has been challenged by human rights groups that allege the singer used her fame and fortune to flout Malawai's adoption laws.
"If only my wealth and my position could have made things go faster," she said. "I assure you it doesn't matter who you are and how much money you have, nothing goes fast in Africa."
Typically, prospective parents are required to stay in the country during the 18-month evaluation period, but the judge who granted the interim custody order October 12 said the issue of residence is not specified in the laws. A social worker in London will check on David for the next 18 months.
The singer said she initially was urged to consider adopting a child in Ethiopia or Kenya because of Malawi's vague adoption laws.
"I did have my heart set on David, but I was also told there was a possibility I wouldn't be able to adopt him," she said. "I was told to look around at all the orphanages."
Madonna said she was worried the firestorm of publicity that surrounded the adoption may dissuade other parents from adopting children from Africa.
"I wanted to go into a Third World country -- I wasn't sure where -- and give a life to a child who might not otherwise have had one," she said.
"I'm disappointed because more than anything it discourages other people from doing the same thing," she said. "I feel the media is doing a great disservice to all the orphans of Africa, period, not just the orphans of Malawi."
Winfrey, whose talk show is based in Chicago, commended Madonna for the adoption.
"I have to say, Madonna, that's a brave thing that you did," Winfrey said. "This audience, I know, applauds you for it."
David has spent most of his life in an orphanage. His mother died shortly after childbirth.
Madonna and Ritchie traveled to the southeast African country on October 4. They spent eight days visiting orphanages the singer is funding through her charity.
Madonna has two children -- daughter Lourdes, 9, and son Rocco, 6.
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sweetpie
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Post by sweetpie on Oct 25, 2006 17:22:01 GMT -5
David's father, Yohane Banda, has said he didn't understand the adoption meant he would give up custody of his son "for good." But in an interview posted Tuesday on Time magazine's Web site, Banda said he will not contest the adoption. "I don't want my child, who is already gone, to come back," he said. "I will be killing his future if I accept that." Banda has said he is too poor to raise David. Uh, I was sayin?
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Post by Blaque on Oct 25, 2006 17:27:46 GMT -5
He's confused.
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sweetpie
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Post by sweetpie on Oct 27, 2006 19:39:06 GMT -5
You give him too much credit...
But he did ultimately make the correct decision.
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