Madonna To Adopt Or Not?

BLANTYRE, Malawi (October 5, 2006) — To adopt or not to adopt?

That appears to be the question surrounding Madonna today.

Madonna arrived in Malawi on Wednesday on a mission to help AIDS orphans — and may leave with a child adopted in this impoverished southern African country, according to several reports.

Andrina Mchiela, secretary to the minister for gender and child welfare, said the pop star planned to adopt a child and launch six projects to help underprivileged children during her stay.

“She told us she is looking for a baby boy. Her team has identified a few, but the choice is hers,” she told the Associated Press.

Mchiela told the AP that Madonna and her husband, director Guy Ritchie, would be subject to a probation period required of all prospective adoptive parents.

“After her husband and her fill in the papers, we’ll allow them to take him away, not as adoptive parents but foster parents until after the 18-24 months when the government of Malawi will assess whether they are a suitable family,” she said. “This is a legal requirement that cannot be fast-tracked.”

Benston Kilimbe, director of social welfare in the government, said Madonna is expected to file the adoption papers today, the Associated Press reports

However, a spokesperson for Madonna released the following statement to Access Hollywood yesterday:

“I can confirm Madonna is in Malawi on a private visit. She is building an orphanage and child care center and is involved in other initiatives geared toward helping children orphaned by Aids thru the Raising Malawi organization (www.raisingmalawi.org ). Despite reports stating otherwise, she has not adopted a baby boy”.

“I have no information or confirmation regarding Madonna adopting an individual child. She’s kind of adopting an entire country of children,” the spokesperson added later in an email to the Associated Press.

Madonna and an entourage of some 10 people landed on a private plane in the capital Lilongwe just after 9 a.m., according to Mchiela. There had been no prior announcement.

Madonna was expected to spend Wednesday resting in the capital, Lilongwe. She was to travel Thursday to Mphandula, a village about 30 miles from the capital, where she wants to set up an education and feeding center for children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic.

Malawi is among the poorest countries in the world, trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of hunger and disease. HIV/AIDS infects just over 14 percent of the 12 million population — most of them economically active adults — and has left an estimated 1 million children orphaned.

In villages like Mphandula, many orphaned children are cared for either by siblings or grandparents, who struggle to find food for the extended family. There is no electricity in the village and the inhabitants live in mud and thatched huts.

Televisions are nonexistent and radios are rare, meaning that most of the villagers have never even heard Madonna sing.

Madonna unveiled her plans for Malawi in an interview in August with Time magazine. She said she wants to raise at least $3 million for programs to support AIDS orphans.

Madonna joins a growing list of entertainer-activists who have focused on Africa. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, whose child was born in Namibia earlier this year, recently announced they would donate $1 million each to two humanitarian organizations active on the continent. Actor and director George Clooney has campaigned passionately for the victims of the violence in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Madonna has teamed up with developing-world economic expert Jeffrey Sachs on programs in Malawi, and she’s met with former U.S. President Bill Clinton about bringing low-cost medicines to the country.

Sachs has launched a series of comprehensive projects to transform villages in Africa, and Clinton last month announced a campaign against rural poverty in Malawi that will focus in part on combatting AIDS.

Madonna and Guy have a son, Rocco, 5, and the singer also has a daughter, Lourdes, 9.

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