Father Of Adopted Son Defends Madonna

MCHINJI, Malawi (October 18, 2006) — Yohane Banda told The Associated Press on Wednesday he had entrusted his son to a Malawian orphanage after his wife died of childbirth complications, saying he was too poor to raise him alone. Now, he says, Madonna has given the boy a chance to have a family.

“Where were these people when David was struggling in the orphanage? These so-called human rights groups should leave my baby alone,” he said. “As father I have OKed this, I have no problem. The village has no problem. Who are they to cause trouble? Please let them stop.”

The Human Rights Consultative Committee, a coalition of 67 organizations, launched a legal challenge Tuesday, noting that Malawian regulations require prospective parents to stay with a child in Malawi for 18 to 24 months for assessment before the adoption is formalized. Madonna, though, was allowed to take the boy to England, where she has a home, and Malawian officials have said the family would be monitored there.

Children’s advocates in Malawi have stressed they are not opposed to Madonna adopting David, but want to ensure rules meant to protect children aren’t ignored.

Madonna and British film director husband Guy Ritchie spent eight days in Malawi and last Thursday signed adoption papers for David Banda. The boy’s father countersigned the papers and High Court Justice Andrew Nyirenda issued the couple an “interim order” allowing them custody, a step toward adoption. The boy was flown to London on Monday.

Penston Kilembe, director of Child Welfare Services in Malawi’s Ministry of Gender, Child Welfare and Community Services, told the AP the laws to which the civil rights groups referred in their challenge are “archaic.” He said his government took into account the rights of children and families in allowing Madonna to pursue adoption.

“Madonna and her husband has broken no laws as far as government is concerned. They have followed all the legal steps,” he said.

Madonna’s attempt to adopt David has sparked a debate about how best to care for the millions of orphans in places like Malawi, a desperately poor country beset by drought and AIDS. Some children’s advocates say children are best raised close to home, but AIDS has killed many of those in extended families who might once have cared for children in Malawi and elsewhere in Africa, leaving orphans in the hands of elderly grandparents, older siblings, strained orphanages or on the streets.

The case has drawn international attention.

The Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema compared Madonna’s taking custody of David to a “kidnapping” and called for clearer international rules, according to his spokesman, confirming accounts of his remarks in Italian media.

In a statement last week, the British development group ActionAid lauded Madonna for helping David and her wider projects for AIDS orphans in Malawi. It also called on rich Western nations to make good on promises to get AIDS drugs to patients in poor countries, and said individuals could make donations to help communities care for AIDS orphans, so that children could “grow up in their own culture, and if orphaned, with any remaining family they have left.”

Madonna, rejecting the criticism of recent days, said in a statement Tuesday: “We have gone about the adoption procedure according to the law like anyone else who adopts a child. Reports to the contrary are totally inaccurate.”

Banda’s wife, Marita, 28, died a week after giving birth to David. The couple, who had been married for over 10 years, had two other sons who died in infancy from malaria.

“I was alone with a baby. I had no money. I couldn’t buy him milk. That’s why I surrendered him to the orphanage,” said Banda.

Madonna found David at the Home of Hope Orphanage, which looks after more than 500 children who have lost one or both parents.

“Orphanage life is no good. We leave kids there because we can’t look after them properly ourselves. Now my son has been taken by a kindhearted woman, these people want to bring him back to the orphanage,” said Banda, standing in his small garden of onions and tomatoes.

He said Madonna and Ritchie promised him nothing apart from “love and care for my David.”