Madonna visits village amid rumours

LILONGWE – Madonna visited an impoverished Malawian village on Monday after arriving in the southern African nation with a boy she is adopting, amid rumours she wants to adopt a second child.

The US pop diva, who sparked controversy last year when she decided to adopt one-year-old David Banda, chatted to local farmers and toured corn fields with aid workers, wearing dark glasses and knee-high boots and holding hands with her daughter, Lourdes. Madonna was expected to take Banda to see his father yesterday at the Home of Hope orphanage where he lived before he left Malawi.But her spokeswoman denied media reports she plans to adopt a second child.”The government of Malawi salutes Madonna for coming back with the child for the father to see him,” Minister of Information, Patricia Kaliati, told Reuters.Yohane Banda, David’s father, has complained he has no access to Madonna and struggles to get information about his son, who was placed in an orphanage after his mother died.Dressed in black and clutching Banda, now about 18-months-old, Madonna arrived in Malawi in a private jet on Monday, a Reuters witness said.After changing into combat pants and a wide-brimmed hat, the singer and her British film director husband Guy Ritchie drove to a village outside the capital.Madonna is paying for a new clinic to be built in the village of Gumulira and is supporting efforts by aid groups to help improve food security and education there.”We are very happy to receive Madonna today and we are thankful for her support,” Chief Ntanga, the village chief, told Reuters after meeting the singer.A spokeswoman for Madonna says she has no plans to adopt another child despite media reports that the singer and Ritchie wanted to add a young Malawian girl to their family.The visit comes some six months after the couple signed interim adoption papers for Banda, who will stay with Madonna and Ritchie for 18 months before a decision is made by the Malawian government on whether to finalise the adoption.Malawian officials have said they are monitoring Banda’s progress in Britain, where he has been living with the couple.Madonna’s adoption of the child grabbed world headlines and caused some rights groups in Malawi to question whether she had used her celebrity status to bypass laws governing the adoption of Malawians by foreigners – an argument denied by her lawyers.The adoption controversy has helped to spotlight the plight of orphans in Malawi, where more than 900 000 children are orphaned and another 500 000 have lost at least one parent, many of them to the country’s devastating HIV-AIDS pandemic.Nampa-ReutersMadonna was expected to take Banda to see his father yesterday at the Home of Hope orphanage where he lived before he left Malawi.But her spokeswoman denied media reports she plans to adopt a second child.”The government of Malawi salutes Madonna for coming back with the child for the father to see him,” Minister of Information, Patricia Kaliati, told Reuters.Yohane Banda, David’s father, has complained he has no access to Madonna and struggles to get information about his son, who was placed in an orphanage after his mother died.Dressed in black and clutching Banda, now about 18-months-old, Madonna arrived in Malawi in a private jet on Monday, a Reuters witness said.After changing into combat pants and a wide-brimmed hat, the singer and her British film director husband Guy Ritchie drove to a village outside the capital.Madonna is paying for a new clinic to be built in the village of Gumulira and is supporting efforts by aid groups to help improve food security and education there.”We are very happy to receive Madonna today and we are thankful for her support,” Chief Ntanga, the village chief, told Reuters after meeting the singer.A spokeswoman for Madonna says she has no plans to adopt another child despite media reports that the singer and Ritchie wanted to add a young Malawian girl to their family.The visit comes some six months after the couple signed interim adoption papers for Banda, who will stay with Madonna and Ritchie for 18 months before a decision is made by the Malawian government on whether to finalise the adoption.Malawian officials have said they are monitoring Banda’s progress in Britain, where he has been living with the couple.Madonna’s adoption of the child grabbed world headlines and caused some rights groups in Malawi to question whether she had used her celebrity status to bypass laws governing the adoption of Malawians by foreigners – an argument denied by her lawyers.The adoption controversy has helped to spotlight the plight of orphans in Malawi, where more than 900 000 children are orphaned and another 500 000 have lost at least one parent, many of them to the country’s devastating HIV-AIDS pandemic.Nampa-Reuters