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Madonna Adopts
Madonna and her film director husband, Guy Ritchie, have adopted a one-year-old boy from Malawi, in southern Africa. The boy, David Banda, has been living in an orphanage. His father – and it appears the Government of Malawi – have given permission for the adoption. His mother died a month after giving birth.
Madonna funds a charity in Malawi to provide food, education and shelter for up to 4,000 Aids orphans. She is working with the organisation “Raising Malawi”.
Some are saying that the rules have been relaxed for the pop-diva. Normally an adoption would take at least 18 months following the court hearing which took place yesterday.
Recently, actress Angelina Jolie adopted a child from Ethiopia.
Some charities have questioned whether the foreign adoptions are in the best interest of the child. A social worker argued on breakfast BBC TV yesterday that the child might grow up feeling obliged to be “grateful”.
An Australian news company gives a different perspective:
“I didn’t know Madonna before she came to the orphanage, but I wish I had been the one she adopted. Life is hard here,” Anders Malikita, a 14-year-old child at the orphanage, said.