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Judge delays Madonna adoption hearing
LILONGWE, Malawi (AP) ? A judge on Friday postponed a hearing on a lawsuit by human rights groups challenging the government's decision to allow Madonna to start adoption procedures for a motherless 13-month-old Malawian boy.
Judge Andrew Nyirenda delayed the hearing until next Friday to give Attorney General Jane Ansah time to consult with the Ministry of Gender, Child Welfare and Community Services.
"We are ready for the case but the attorney general wants to consult with the Ministry of Gender on the whole adoption process," said Alan Chinula, a lawyer representing Madonna. "Our position is all legal aspects were followed."
Madonna and her husband, Guy Ritchie, have been given temporary custody as a step toward adopting David Banda, who has spent most of his young life in an orphanage after his mother died of complications from giving birth.
His father has said he is too poor to raise the boy on his own and he wants the couple to adopt his son. The boy was flown to London on Tuesday and taken to Madonna's home there.
The singer said in a statement that she and her husband have followed the law in the adoption process that would be completed after an 18-month evaluation process by Malawian authorities. Normally, prospective parents in Malawi are given custody and required to be monitored in the country for 18 months to determine their fitness. The regulations make no special provisions for foreigners.
Yohane Banda, the father of the boy, has denounced efforts by human rights groups to challenge the adoption.
"Where were these people when David was struggling in the orphanage? These so-called human rights groups should leave my baby alone," he said in an interview earlier this week. "As father I have okayed this, I have no problem. The village has no problem. Who are they to cause trouble? Please let them stop."
Undule Mwakasungura, a lawyer for the Human Rights Consultative Committee, which comprises 67 human rights groups, said the committee "is not necessarily against the adoption," it just wants the laws to be followed.
"We note that laws were flouted and our concern is that government may set a precedent that can legalize human trafficking," he said.
He said Madonna and her husband spent just eight days in Malawi but won a court order giving them temporary custody of the child.
He said the committee wants to be a party to the adoption process to make sure the law is followed. He said current law bars international adoptions, saying adoptive parents must be residents in Malawi and must be assessed for between 18 and 24 months.
The judge, in granting the interim custody order on Oct. 12, said the issue of residence is not specified in the laws.
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10-20-2006 05:33 PM
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Madonna overseas adoption follows trend
By JOCELYN NOVECK, AP National Writer
NEW YORK - Angelina Jolie adopted from Cambodia and Ethiopia. Madonna, as most of the planet knows, is adopting from Malawi. And ordinary Americans adopt foreign-born children by the thousands each year ? a rate that has tripled in the last decade.
But with close to 120,000 children waiting in the U.S. foster care system, what's driving the push in overseas adoptions? It's an emotional issue that goes to the heart of what people are seeking when they adopt a child ? and the obstacles they can face in this country.
"I'm happy to see any child adopted anywhere in the world," says Gloria Hochman of the National Adoption Center, based in Philadelphia. "But every time I see a story about a celebrity adopting, I always think, 'Why don't they look here?' It makes me wonder: Do they know there are children waiting here?"
Americans now adopt some 23,000 children overseas every year, according to immigration statistics. Domestically, numbers are difficult to come by. The best estimate is about 13,000-14,000 infant adoptions, and 52,000 child welfare adoptions ? the vast majority of those by foster parents or relatives, according to the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. (The numbers don't include adoptions by stepparents, about 40 percent of all adoptions.)
One key factor in rising international adoptions is that the supply of healthy U.S. infants has been dwindling for decades. Birth control and legal abortions have reduced the number of unwanted births. And our values have changed: The stigma attached to unwed mothers has been greatly reduced, so more mothers are keeping their babies.
Supply has diminished, but demand is strong: Mothers are waiting longer to start families, meaning they may find themselves unable to conceive. And the majority of families considering adoption want infants; it's the closest thing to having one's own baby, to make an imprint from the start of life, to experience each stage of childhood.
The rise in foreign adoptions is just one part of what Adam Pertman, executive director of the Donaldson Institute, calls a "revolution" in adoption. "Many kids do not look like their parents," says Pertman, author of "Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution is Transforming America." "New cultures are coming into peoples' homes. People are understanding that families can be formed in different ways." Gay adoptions are another part of this revolution.
As to whether families should focus more on needy children here at home, Pertman says all kids need homes. "Turning it into a competition isn't right for anyone involved," he says.
The top source for Americans is by far China, where there were about 8,000 adoptions (virtually all female) to U.S. families in 2005. Adopting from China "is a more viable option for many people," says Lacee Steigerwald, outreach director for the Great Wall China Adoption agency in Austin, Texas. She says people often come to her agency after frustrating experiences trying to adopt domestically, often when birth parents have changed their minds. "People come to us with horror stories," Steigerwald said. "They've been let down one, two or three times."
In interviews, a number of families echoed that concern about domestic adoption ? that they would become emotionally or financially invested, only to have a birth parent change their mind. (All states have different laws defining how long a birth parent has to change their mind, ranging from 0 to 45 days.)
"One of the things parents want is the finality that this is their child," says Will Ahern of Chanhassen, Minn. He and his wife adopted their daughter, Summer, now 8, from China at 15 months, and he says the process has been "perfect" ? "every morning I wake up and celebrate how cool it is."
Kathy Bargar and her husband also chose China when they were ready to adopt. In May, the couple from Danville, Calif., brought home bright-eyed Gracie, now 2, who'd been abandoned at birth in front of an auto parts store in the city of Chengdu ? accompanied only by a note, on which was written her birth date and gender. "We chose China because it's a stable, predictable program," Bargar said. But also, the couple feared domestic adoption might be difficult ? partly because they already had one biological daughter, and they thought they might be less marketable to a birth mother, who might think they'd favor their biological child. Also, she says, "America views the birth mother as having the first right to a child."
Now, thrilled to have Gracie, Bargar says she'd consider all options if she adopts again. "I didn't want the involvement of a birth mother, but now I see how it could be helpful and wonderful," she said.
Some parents throw themselves into the culture of the country they've chosen. Allison von Gruenigen, of Knoxville, Tenn., is awaiting news from China within days. To prepare, the 45-year-old single-mom-to-be has been attending Chinese New Year celebrations, dance festivals, and language classes. She gets huge support from an ever-growing national network of parents who've adopted in China.
"It was a natural choice to go through China," says von Gruenigen, who has a Chinese-born niece. But she's keeping her mind open for the future. "I know how many kids domestically need a home," she says. "If I see that I'm doing a good job, I might adopt here at some point."
Proponents of domestic adoption acknowledge that huge obstacles exist for families willing to adopt older children. In Georgia, Andrea Shoemaker works for the group Wednesday's Child, making three-minute films for local TV about kids waiting to be adopted, most ages 8-18.
"We have a lot of families who are willing to step up to the plate," Shoemaker says. "But they get frustrated. The process is difficult. We're not really doing our job to nurture these families, train them, help them before things get too difficult."
Janice Goldwater can attest to that. Goldwater and her husband decided to add to their family when the first of their three natural children went off to college. They adopted Elyana, then almost 10. The child had been removed from her birth family in Siberia for abuse and neglect, then spent three and a half years in an orphanage there. She then was adopted by a New York family that was ill-prepared and could not keep her.
"There have been lots of challenges helping her heal and teaching her to love and to trust," says Goldwater, of Silver Spring, Md., who is a founder of the Adoptions Together agency. "It's been very, very hard and very, very valuable."
In the adoption process, Goldwater said she was "shocked at how many roadblocks we came up against." Workers were overloaded with cases. It was hard to find the kids in the system. They considered one child, but relatives in the military expressed interest, so it fell through. Then, the relatives never followed through.
Goldwater supports foreign adoptions, but worries that some high-profile celebrity adoptions might be for the wrong reasons. "People shouldn't adopt to make a political statement," she says.
One of the most moving moments for her, she says, was the moment she was looking for something to write on a card announcing Elyana's adoption. Elyana said maybe she could help, and she composed a poem on the spot.
"First my heart said never," read the closing lines. "But now we are a family forever."
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10-20-2006 05:35 PM
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About a boy
Madonna's adoption of 13-month-old David Banda has created a furore. Did she use her celebrity to flout Malawi's adoption laws? Was the boy's father exploited? Has a child from the developing world been turned into a commodity? Xan Rice asks the child's family what really went on
Friday October 20, 2006
The Guardian
This is the story of a 13-month-old African boy. Of a father who, after burying his wife and two infant sons, took his only remaining child to an orphanage to give him a better chance of survival. Of a pop superstar desperate to adopt a kid from a continent she had never visited. And of a government so grateful for her promise of more than a million pounds in aid that it bent the rules to help her, turning the adoption into a PR nightmare. This is the story of David Banda - the most famous baby in the world.
It begins in Lipunga, a small, neat village of 300 people in the foothills of far western Malawi, in early September last year. Yohane and Marita Banda are expecting their third child. They are nervous. Their first son, Garnet, died of malaria aged two years and eight months. The second, Babel, also a boy, died of an undetermined illness aged 18 months.
Now Marita, 28, is feeling ill. So Yohane borrows a bicycle, lays her on the trailer hitched behind it, and pedals 13 miles along a dirt road to the nearest clinic. They are sent home with medication but are back in the clinic that night.
"I took her back there on the bicycle," recalls Yohane, a pleasant 32-year-old man with a physique that speaks of physical labour.
This time the clinic summons an ambulance, and Marita spends a week in hospital. After being discharged, she travels from Lipunga across the nearby border into Zambia, where her parents live. David is born on September 24, delivered by traditional birth attendants. He is healthy, but his mother is not. By the time Yohane reaches the village, she is clinging on to life. A dispute over whether to send her to a witchdoctor or to a hospital - Yohane's preferred choice - wastes valuable time. Marita dies on September 30, six days after giving birth.
Yohane is devastated. But his problems are not over. He still owes 10,000 Kwacha (?40) to his in-laws as part of the dowry. They want nothing to do with David. So Yohane returns home to Lipunga wondering how, as a single parent who works in his tomato and onion "garden" all day, he is going to ensure that his week-old son does not suffer the same fate as his siblings. He cannot afford to buy milk. And what if the child gets sick?
In previous decades, the extended family would have stepped in to ensure the child was looked after. But Aids has shredded this traditional social safety net, known as "Umunthu" in Malawi. The official HIV infection rate among adults is 14%, although many suspect it may be far higher. There are already hundreds of thousands of orphans in a country of just 12 million, and overstretched parents are increasingly reluctant to take on the burden of another family's child.
After a discussion with his mother, Asianti, who also spends all day tending her vegetables, Yohane meets with the village chief, Henderson Geza. Geza, a small 69-year-old man with bright eyes, knows how tough it has become for single parents to look after a child in poor villages like Lipunga: his own grandson was sent to an orphanage for a few months after the child's mother died.
Yohane and Geza agree that the best option is to ask the church's permission to send David to the Home of Hope, an orphanage 25 miles away. There he should be well fed, will receive personal care from an in-house foster mother and, even more importantly, will have access to the on-site clinic should illness strike.
With Asianti and David on the back of his bicycle, Yohane cycles to the Home of Hope with a letter of recommendation from the church. David is five weeks old. The orphanage does not have space, but a kind-hearted volunteer worker agrees to take him in anyway.
"It was a very sad day for us," says Asianti. "Our only consolation was the child had a better chance of staying alive."
Eleven months later, Madonna, the 48-year-old superstar with homes in the UK and US and a fortune of nearly ?250m, tells Time magazine that she is going to raise $3m to help some of the estimated 900,000 orphans in the southern African country. She says that in the past few years she has "felt more responsible for the children of the world".
The money will be used to help build a new home for more than 4,000 children orphaned by Aids and to finance a film about the plight of Malawian children. It will also fund an experimental "Millennium Village" in Gumulira, near the capital Lilongwe, one of dozens of such projects set up across Africa under a scheme by the US economist Jeffrey Sachs to prove that people can be dragged out of poverty at relatively little financial cost. Such is the current cynicism about celebrity philanthropy in Africa that the normally sober Time declares that the mission has the "pungent aroma of a coordinated act of publicity".
Undeterred, Madonna, who has never been to Africa before, plans a trip to Malawi with husband Guy Ritchie - who has quietly visited the country earlier in the year. Preparations are also under way for the trip's second, secret purpose: the Ritchies are planning to go home with an adopted child. Lourdes, 10, and Rocco, six, will soon have a baby brother.
In Malawi, all adoptions are organised through the Ministry for Gender, Child Welfare and Community Services. At the Ritchies' request, ministry officials have been asked to visit orphanages and identify a dozen babies for them to choose from. The search has begun.
By now, David is now nearly a year old, and in good health. Yohane visits him twice a week, using a borrowed bicycle to make the 50-mile round-trip. Usually he brings food that he has grown in the village. Asianti sometimes comes along, too, pedalling her own bike. Though 56, her work in the fields means she is fitter than most women half her age.
"We were very close to my child," says Yohane. "Whenever I left the orphanage, David would cry."
Madonna and Ritchie arrive in Malawi on a private jet on October 4, check into the Kumbali Lodge near the president's house in the capital, and immediately begin visiting orphanages around the country to observe the challenges facing the country. But before the day is out a government official tells the press that the singer is looking to adopt a child and, in a display of well-intentioned naivety, asks the media to respect the couple's privacy.
cont'd
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10-20-2006 05:38 PM
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Bluto
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Madonna's spokeswoman immediately denies the report, but the damage is done. While the actor Angelina Jolie was able to slip into Ethiopia, adopt a baby girl and fly out before the media jumped on to the story, the Ritchies will have no such luck.
While it seems highly unlikely that the Ritchies want events to unfold as they do - they are reportedly furious at the leak and the government soon clams up on the topic - the official's slip-up ensures that the adoption occurs under the full view of the world's media. But the Ritchies surely also bear some of the blame - combining a pre-announced trip to the country that is bound to attract media attention with the adoption process hardly seems the best way to ensure privacy.
And with the British tabloids on the trail, there is little doubt that the identity of the latest addition to the Ritchie family will soon come out before the child leaves the country. A week after the Ritchie's arrival, it does. The Chosen One is one of the 500 orphans living at the Home of Hope orphanage. The child is David Banda.
If the news of the adoption of a tiny black boy by a white pop diva isn't enough, there is an added sensation - Madonna and Guy Ritchie are adopting a boy with a living father. Why are the Ritchies doing this, knowing the controversy it will cause? And how are they going to get around Malawi's tough adoption rules, which require that foreigners be resident in the country for 18 months before adopting a child to ensure that welfare officials have time to monitor their suitability.
Only the Ritchies - and the government that drew up the shortlist - can answer the first question, and neither seems inclined to do so for now. Even though many of the children in Malawian orphanages have lost only their mother, it is highly unusual for these kids to be put forward for adoption by welfare officials.
"Only children without any living parents and circumstances that make it unlikely that they can ever return to their extended family are selected for adoption," says the director of a well-established infant home in Malawi, who asks not to be named. "This was a very unusual case."
On September 30, several days before the Ritchies arrived in Malawi, Yohane says that he was visited in Lipunga by Penston Kilembe, the country's director of social welfare, and asked whether he would allow David to be adopted by a well-vetted foreign couple. After sitting down with Asianti and other members of the extended family, Yohane agreed that it would be best to let David go. The thinking was this: if David remained in Malawi, he would remain close to his father but would be unlikely ever to break the cycle of poverty. The best he could realistically hope for would be to become a herder, a petty trader, or a subsistence farmer. By going abroad - even as the child of another family -he could become whatever he wanted.
The decision may seem callous to some in the west - a father abandoning his only son. In Malawi, it seems selfless: I'll give up my right to the child to let him have the opportunities he would never otherwise have. He may lose his culture and even his attachment to his biological relatives - but he will have a chance.
"My interest is in the child's best chance for health and education," says Yohane, who denies that he was coerced or manipulated into making the decision - a claim reportedly made by his brother last week. "It was a hard choice to make, but when it seemed likely that David would have a better life with a new family, I could not say no."
Most people in Malawi, it seems, agree with Yohane's decision to let his child go, and many say they would do the same, were they in a similar position. "Poverty means that many people here find it difficult to support their children," says Boniface Tamani, chairman of the Public Affairs Committee, Malawi's largest interfaith organisation. He says this is not a case of a white person "saving Africa", just one person with means giving a child with an uncertain future a shot at a better life. "David will now get an education he could never have got in Africa. Local wealthy people could learn from Madonna's example."
Tamani says arguments that the singer should have given money to David's father to allow him to stay at home did not hold up. "Madonna is already giving a lot of money to an orphanage here to help many children. Here she is going further by inviting a child into her own home, which is not easy for anyone to do."
The legal hurdles disappear swiftly. A high court judge passes an interim order allowing the Ritchies to take David home with them, waiving the normal requirement of 18 months' residency for any foreign nationals looking to adopt a Malawian child. Under the order, the court will make a second ruling after 18 months to formally approve the adoption - assuming welfare officials are happy with the child's new environment. Technically, the ruling may be legal - Malawi has signed an international convention allowing intra-country adoptions, even if it conflicts with the constitution - but it was certainly highly unusual in application.
At the court hearing, Yohane meets the Ritchies for the first time, finds them to be "nice people" and formally consents to David's adoption. The Ritchies agree that David will visit his father in Malawi "within three or four years", according to Yohane.
Human rights groups, which have protested at the preferential treatment granted to the Ritchies, launches a campaign condemning the adoption and promises to fight to have the order reversed. "It [adoption] is not like selling property," says advocacy group Eye of the Child. "It's about safeguarding the future of a human being who, because of age, cannot express an opinion."
Rafiq Hajat, executive director of the Institute for Policy Interaction in Blantyre, which looks at democracy and social justice issues, says he also feels uneasy about the case. "When a foreigner comes to this country to adopt a child, they normally have to leap over all sorts of hurdles. With Madonna, it seems to have been made easy: 'Bingo, there's your child.' It's a dangerous precedent to set."
He says he is not convinced about the singer's motives. "Maybe she has genuine philanthropic zeal, but maybe she just wants to sell more records. This whole thing has been a circus."
But attempts to overturn the court's interim order appear to be failing. The coalition of NGOs looking to mount a legal challenge have had made little progress and, without the support of David's family for their motion, it seems unlikely they will succeed in having him returned home. When representatives of the plaintiffs visit Lipunga, Yohane and Asianti rebuff them: "If David is brought back here, are you going to feed him?" they ask.
Government officials are dismissive of the outcry, and insist that due process has been followed. Andrina Mchiela, principal secretary in the welfare ministry, says the government made mistakes in handling the issue, never anticipatating the "magnitude of publicity" it would attract. But she denies that rules were bent. "I would not say that Madonna has been given special treatment. This interim order is not adoption - we still will monitor the child's progress before that happens."
But, if not starstruck, the government clearly feels deeply indebted to Madonna for her pledges to help out the country's orphans and to raise international awareness of their plight. "Madonna has a big programme in this country," Mchiela says. "She is a daughter of Malawi. There is no mistrust, and her integrity cannot be questioned."
As for the fact that David has a father who regularly visits him, Mchiela says that by placing his son in an orphanage Yohane has demonstrated his intention to seek a better life for his child. "It was like when Moses was left in the basket in the hope that someone would rescue him. Madonna has rescued the baby. All we can say is, 'Bon voyage, David'."
It's now Wednesday. Thanks to her visit, Madonna's songs are still being played in Malawi's nightclubs; Holiday is a particular favourite. David has spent his first full day in the UK.
It is nearing midday. Asianti has been tending her fields since 5am. With a giggle, she sums up the happenings of the past two weeks. "My son is a father who was poor and did not know much. Now he has a child that will be cared for by a rich and famous woman!"
Yohane is spraying his tomato crop nearby. He is wearing a pair of old tweed trousers, a yellow and blue T-shirt that says "Dada" and blue sandals. He appears tired of all the media attention, but sits down to answer questions without complaint.
"I will miss David," he says. "I miss him already. But I know that it's for the best".
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10-20-2006 05:38 PM
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Bluto
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Official: Angelina Jolie Adopting Ethiopian Girl
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia ? Angelina Jolie, who has been romantically linked with her "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" co-star Brad Pitt, is adopting an orphaned Ethiopian baby girl.
Jolie visited the Horn of Africa nation last week to file her adoption request, accompanied by Pitt and her 3-year-old son, Maddox, whom she adopted in Cambodia, an official said Wednesday.
"The paperwork has gone through. Miss Angelina's request was accepted last week," Hadosh Halefom, head of the country's state-run adoption agency, told The Associated Press.
The child "is less than a year old," Hadosh said, refusing to elaborate. The actress filed her request through a private adoption agency.
"If people's paperwork is in order, it can take only two days to finalize everything," Hadosh said.
In a posting on People magazine's Web site, Jolie is quoted as saying the child's name is Zahara Marley Jolie (search) and that she and Maddox are "very happy to have a new addition to our family."
For months, rumors have been circulating about the extent of her off-screen relationship with Pitt. Photos published in the July 11 issue of People show Jolie standing near her Buckinghamshire, England, estate while Pitt rides a dirt bike with Maddox. Other photos show Pitt, Jolie and Maddox at Luton Airport outside London.
Pitt and his wife, Jennifer Aniston (search), announced their separation in January, and Aniston filed for divorce in March, citing irreconcilable differences. Pitt, 41, has denied Jolie, 30, is the reason for the split and Jolie has said she's never had sex with Pitt.
Hadosh said Jolie had met the 10 conditions for adopting a child from Ethiopia.
"The two most important are economic capabilities and check with the police," Hadosh said. "Although she is a film star, she still has to meet the same requirements as everybody else."
Ethiopia, a country of 70 million, has more than 5 million orphans, their parents lost to famine, disease, war and AIDS -- a catastrophe the government has said is "tearing apart the social fabric" of the east African nation.
Caring for the orphans costs $115 million a month in a country whose annual health budget is only $140 million. Because of that, Ethiopia has gone out of its way to make adoption easier.
In 2003, a record 1,400 children were adopted from abroad, more than double the number in the previous year. The number of private adoption agencies in Addis Ababa, the capital, has doubled in the past year to 30.
Ethiopia has strict laws to thwart dubious adoption agents and to ensure that the orphan really exists, that the paperwork is not fraudulent and that no AIDS-infected children are being passed off as healthy.
Agencies charge fees of around $20,000 per child, a relatively inexpensive fee compared to many other countries.
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I think Ang went to the Wal Mart of child adopting countries. Got the express kid. Maybe Madonna should have gone there too, filed the paper work correctly, step foot into the country, not try to buy people off... who knows.
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10-20-2006 06:24 PM
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There has to be. I am going to make a real animated gif of me doing that...
