Madonna With Malawian Child Raises Questions About Westerners in Their Putative Efforts to Help Africa
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire Photo File
From correspondents in Lilongwe, Malawi
April 02, 2008 07:36am
Reuters
AMERICAN pop star Madonna is due back in Malawi next week for what is expected to be a final court ruling on whether she can adopt a child from the African country.
A senior official at Lilongwe International Airport said today her jet was cleared for landing from April 8 and she was expected around that time.
In February, Malawian Information Minister Patricia Kaliati praised Madonna's efforts to rally support for orphans in the impoverished country and said it would be wrong for the government to deny the pop star's adoption of a child.
Madonna is in the process of adopting a Malawian boy, David Banda.
She began adoption proceedings in 2006 after meeting the boy in a local orphanage.
The toddler is living with Madonna and her film director husband Guy Ritchie in London.
The adoption has been controversial, with critics accusing the government of skirting laws that ban non-residents from adopting children in Malawi, which has been badly hit by the AIDS epidemic and is one of the poorest in the world.
There are an estimated one million orphans in the country, many of whom are infected with the HIV virus.
Malawi's government is amending its adoption laws.
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