Madonna Leaves Malawi Without Child

1-Year-Old Is Being Cared For By Singer's Entourage Who Stayed Behind

(AP) 

Madonna's charity, Raising Malawi, is setting up an orphan care center to provide food, education and shelter for up to 4,000 children. It will have projects based on Kabbalah, Judaism's mystical sect, which counts the 48-year-old singer among its devotees.
But the adoption, which follows a pattern set by other stars like Angelina Jolie, also raised new questions about the morality of whisking an individual child away rather than providing funds for him or her to be cared for at home.

Madonna arrived in Malawi Oct. 4 on a mission to helps AIDS orphans. She had made no comment to reporters during her stay in Malawi, though she made several public appearances in support of projects to care for AIDS orphans. Rosenberg said in an e-mailed statement Wednesday: "I am unable to make any official statement at this time" on the adoption reports.

Malawi is among the poorest countries in the world, with rampant disease and hunger, aggravated by periodic droughts and crop failure. Some 14 percent of its 12 million people are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and an estimated 1 million children have been orphaned. In many villages, grandparents or older siblings struggle to feed orphans.

In an open letter to Madonna released Tuesday, Eye of the Child had questioned whether foreign adoptions were in the best interests of children.

Jackie Schoeman, executive director Cotlands, a South African organization that cares for children affected by HIV, said the first choice for orphans should be a place in a local family. In Africa, orphans usually are take in by their extended families, but AIDS has affected many of the people who might have traditionally provided support.

"If the only other option is for them to be in a long-term institution, then we would consider international adoption," Schoeman said.

But Mirriam Nyirongo, a retired nurse who runs an orphanage in the northern Malawian town of Mzuzu, said: "We must be frank: We can't afford to look after the thousands of babies that are being orphaned every day.

"If rich people like Madonna take just one child it will be a major boost for Malawi, for people like Baby David, when they come to know their roots, might wish to do the same (for) others."