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April 18, 2007 - Madonna in Malawi |
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Malawi -- Madonna's latest Malawi adventure
took her back Tuesday to the same orphanage where
adoptive son David Banda once lived.
The "Hung Up" singer and her entourage, which
included husband Guy Ritchie, daughter Lourdes and
David, received a warm reception from local
villagers. |
The group was greeted by a chorus of singing orphans
upon entering the village of Mchinji located near
the Zambian border.
The family, tailed by a gaggle of paparazzi and
reporters, touched down in the country by private
jet a day earlier. |
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Before arriving at the Home of Hope orphanage, the Madonna
parade toured several United Nations-backed crop initiatives
in the village of Mtanga, where they were welcomed by
another group of singing children. Lourdes also brought
along her video camera to document the trip.
But not all the kids were in a singing mood. In Mchinji, as
the Madonna party visited the orphanage, several children
turned on the press, hurling stones at the shutterbugs.
The teens, who wore black and yellow uniforms and attended a
nearby secondary school, also formed a wall around the
premises, preventing the photographers from getting near the
private meeting. The youngsters' forces were bolstered by
Madonna's bodyguards and a contingent of local police, who
helped clear the roads before the entourage's arrival.
Eventually, Madonna relented and invited the press corp into
the orphanage, where she posed for pictures and gave polite,
if brief, replies to reporters' queries.
"It feels great to be here," Madonna said of being back in
Malawi.
The last time she came to town, the entertainer came under a
barrage of criticism from local child advocacy groups over
whether her celebrity and wealth caused the Malawi
government to skirt its own regulations to make it easier
for her to take the David home. Madonna has maintained that
she has followed the law to the letter.
A Malawi court has granted the Ritchies an 18-month interim
adoption period after which they will review whether the
child is being properly cared for and rule on a permanent
adoption after visiting the couple in London in May.
Meanwhile, according to reports, David was spotted meeting
with his biological father, Yohane Banda.
Madonna has also launched the Raising Malawi Organization,
whose goal is to provide food, shelter and an education to
approximately 4,000 Malawi children. A ribbon-cutting
ceremony for a childcare center funded by the charity was
held on Monday, but it was not immediately clear whether
Madonna turned up for it.
With all the publicity over her latest trip, Madonna's
publicist, Liz Rosenberg, issued a preemptive denial last
week stating that the performer had no plans to adopt a
second child while she was in the country. |
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