Malawi authorities granted the singer an interim order to adopt one-year-old David Banda, whose own mother died a month after he was born. Madonna was granted an interim order to adopt the child, which means that there?s going to be a subsequent hearing by the same court to either allow her to adopt the child or not, the high court?
s deputy registrar Thomson Ligowe said. This also means that she has been put on observer status to see how she will relate to the child, and people from social welfare will have to observe that. The court will depend upon their observations to make a final decision, Mr Ligowe added.
The documentation for the adoption by Madonna and her husband film producer Guy Ritchie, who have homes in Britain and America, was approved by the judge despite the fact Malawian law does not allow for inter-country adoptions. Mr Ligowe said Madonna was free to take the boy when she leaves Malawi, most likely later today. A senior government official later said Malawi would use officials at its embassy in Washington to monitor how the child relates to his new environment when in America and write reports that will form the basis of the court?
s next decision. Government in this instance will use our Washington office to monitor the progress with the couple (Madonna and Ritchie), said Andrina Mchiela, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Women and Child Development. And also government will appoint a welfare officer from Malawi to liaise with our Washington embassy and make visitations to where the child will be.
He added that there were conditions attached to the interim order but declined to give details, citing confidentiality. The young child is not an orphan. His father Yohame Banda has met the high-profile couple at court as part of the official proceedings.
He said his wife Marita died from childbirth complications and David had been cared for at the Home of Hope Orphan Care Centre in Mchinji, a village near the Zambian border. They are a lovely couple, Mr Banda said. She asked me many questions.
She and her husband seem happy with David. I am happy for him. Madonna promised me that as the child grows she will bring him back to visit.
Madonna and Ritchie have a son, Rocco, five, and the singer also has a daughter, Lourdes, nine. The 48?year-old performer arrived in Malawi ?
a country where more than half the population lives below the poverty line and tens of thousands die of Aids every year ? at the start of October on a well publicised mission to help orphans, amid rumours she was to adopt a child. Madonna, who has refused to speak to reporters during her stay, is setting up an orphan care centre to provide food, education and shelter for up to 4,000 children through her charity, Raising Malawi.
The singer has also been distributing copies of her children?s books to local youngsters. In an open letter to Madonna earlier this week, the private Malawian child advocacy group Eye of the Child welcomed her concern for Malawian children, but questioned whether foreign adoptions were in the best interests of children.
Jackie Schoeman, executive director of Cotlands, a South African organization that cares for children affected by HIV, said the first choice for orphans should be a place in a local family.
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