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Madonna leaves Malawi, adoption process under way

Madonna leaves Malawi, adoption process under way
Ram Stone  |  by news.sawf.org. All rights reserved. 24.11 | 18:22

Madonna visits the Kondanani Children's village, some 20 kilometres from Malawi's commercial capital Blantyre, October 5, 2006.. Photo Credit: REUTERS/Eldson Chagara

LILONGWE (Reuters) - Pop star Madonna left Malawi on Friday without the one-year-old boy she is adopting but with a pledge from the impoverished southern African nation to try to reunite the two while the adoption process is under way.


The pop diva's departure followed a controversial nine-day humanitarian visit to Malawi, during which her aides denied earlier reports by government officials that she had chosen to adopt a boy.
The child, identified as David Banda, was not with Madonna as her white four-wheel drive vehicle swept onto the tarmac to a waiting private jet at the international airport in Lilongwe, Malawi's capital.
"The baby hasn't gone yet because immigration is still trying to process his passport," a senior immigration official told Reuters on Friday, hours after the pop star's plane left the country.


Malawian officials said Madonna had been granted an interim order to adopt Banda and could be given a waiver or exemption allowing her to skirt a law that prohibits non-residents from adopting Malawian children.
But Malawi's leading child rights group said it would seek a court injunction to stop Madonna adopting the child if the government did not put the interim order on hold.
"It's not like selling property," said a statement by Eye of the Child.

"It is about safeguarding the future of a human being who, because of age, cannot express an opinion."
Asked what would happen if the appeal for a delay was not heeded, Eye of the Child director Maxwell Matewere told Reuters: "Civil society will issue a court injunction against the interim order."
In an indication that the governments and courts could come under intense pressure, another rights group, the Civil Liberties Committee said it would back the Eye of the Child in its bid to stop the interim adoption plan.


Malawian officials said they expected Banda to visit and spend time with Madonna, who has homes in the United States and Britain, while waiting for a hearing on the application, which could take up to two years.
Malawian embassy officials will monitor how the child relates to his new environment during that time and write reports that will form the basis of a Malawian court's decision on the adoption, according to a senior government official.
The news that Banda, who has spent most of his life in the dilapidated Home of Hope Orphan Care Center near the Zambian border, could be heading for a new life overseas was seen as a blessing at the orphanage and in surrounding villages.


The child faced a bleak future in his birthplace, the tiny village of Lipunga, after his mother died and his father could not support him.
"If we didn't send Davie away to the orphanage we would have buried him," said Henderson Geza Dyedyereke, the chief of Lipunga, after confirming this week that Banda was being adopted by Madonna, who already has a son and a daughter.
While Banda's father has agreed to the adoption, others are taking a dimmer view.


David's uncle, Pofera Banda, said he wanted to know how his family would benefit from the adoption before it was approved.
"We have seen other parents at the mission who have had their children adopted still living in their poverty. They have not seen their children -- all they see is pictures sent to them.

We don't want that to happen to this family," he said.
Madonna's visit to Malawi also renewed criticism from those who accuse Western celebrities of using Africa and other parts of the developing world as a platform for misplaced, publicity fuelled altruism.
The 48-year-old singer of such hits as "Holiday" and "Material Girl" spent most of her time in Malawi visiting orphanages and meeting charity workers as part of a campaign to publicise the plight of some 900,000 orphans in the nation of 13 million people, where AIDS has destroyed many families.


She has pledged to donate about $3 million to the campaign to help these children, many of whom are infected with HIV. The effort is being spearheaded by her Raising Malawi charity.

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