Maddona’s controversial adoption

September 13, 2011, 12:47 pm Dan McDougall

When Madonna first swept into the African nation of Malawi, chequebook in hand, she vowed to save its impoverished people. Five years later, she has brought them two controversial adoptions, broken promises and a charity caught up in a fraud investigation.

A flight of grey mourning doves scatters as dusk descends on the Malawian village of Zaone. On the edge of town, elderly matriarch Lucy Chekechiwa eats cold lumps of cassava root. Pinned to the wall of her one-room home is a grainy photograph of a woman and child. The woman is, unmistakably, Madonna; the baby she is clutching is Mercy James, Lucy’s granddaughter. The 62 year old hasn’t seen the girl, now five, since Madonna took her to London on a private jet in 2009. (more…)

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Madonna’s Charity Fails in Bid to Finance School

Source: http://www.nytimes.com 
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Published: March 24, 2011

LOS ANGELES — A high-profile charitable foundation set up to build a school for impoverished girls in Malawi, founded by the singer Madonna and fellow devotees of a prominent Jewish mysticism movement, has collapsed after spending $3.8 million on a project that never came to fruition.

Madonna in Malawi in 2007. A group she helped found had planned to build a $15 million school there.

The board of directors of the organization, Raising Malawi, has been ousted and replaced by a caretaker board, including Madonna and her manager, officials with the organization said Thursday. Its executive director, who is the boyfriend of Madonna’s former trainer, Tracy Anderson, left in October amid criticism of his management style and cost overruns for the school. These included what auditors described as outlandish expenditures on salaries, cars, office space and a golf course membership, free housing and a car and driver for the school’s director. (more…)

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Mercy’s Family To Sue Madonna

Sunday, February 06, 2011 (London) 
Madonna’s adopted Malawian daughter’s family is threatening to sue the ‘Queen of Pop’, claiming that she did not keep her promise to let them see the 5-year-old. (more…)
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Madonna – Malawi

In Spring 2009 ACT teamed up with Malawi’s Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC), a network of 80 locally-based civil rights organisations, and paid a lawyer to help preventing Madonna breaking Malawi’s adoption law.

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Woman who helped Madonna’s kid in Laguna

By LORI BASHEDA
 
The woman who founded the Kondanani Children’s Village in Malawi, the orphanage where Madonna adopted her daughter Mercy, will speak about her “powerful story of hope” Friday night at an art gallery in Laguna Beach.
Annie Chikhwaza will be at the Salt Fine Art Gallery from 7-9 p.m. The event is free and refreshments will be served.
Article Tab : Annie Chikhwaza with a baby at her Kondanani Children's Village in Malawi
Annie Chikhwaza with a baby at her Kondanani Children’s Village in Malawi (more…)
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GRAN OF MADONNA’S ADOPTED DAUGHTER THREATENS SUICIDE

Source: Daily Star
The gran of Madonna’s adopted daughter has threatened suicide unless the child is returned to Africa
2nd November 2010
By Nigel Pauley

THE gran of Madonna’s adopted daughter has threatened to kill herself unless the child is returned to Africa.

Mercy, now four, joined the 52-year-old superstar’s family after a lengthy legal battle. (more…)

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Madonna denies access to Mercy

Source: http://www.timeslive.co.za 
Man claiming to be dad will not see adopted girl
Aug 29, 2010 12:00 AM | By BONGANI MTHETHWA

Pop star Madonna will not allow the Malawian man claiming to be the father of her adopted daughter, Mercy, access to the child. (more…)

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Have mercy on a father, Madge

Aug 8, 2010 12:00 AM | By BONGANI MTHETHWA 

Malawian dad of Madonna’s adopted child wants to see her

 SAVING UP: James Kambewa hopes to get enough money to visit his daughter in London  ’I think about her every day. Having a baby is a blessing. So I go through the emotional pain of not living with her every day’  (more…)

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Madonna takes Lourdes back to visit the Malawi orphanage from where she adopted David Banda

Source: Madonna takes Lourdes back to visit the Malawi orphanage from where she adopted David Banda
By Lizzie Smith
Last updated at 10:43 PM on 07th April 2010

 Their heads craning to peer through the gates, children were desperate to see inside The Home of Hope in Malawi today.

They were hoping to catch a glimpse of Madonna, who was returning to the Mchinji Orphange where she adopted her youngest son in 2006. (more…)

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Madonna’s Attorney Confirms Malawi Adoption Trip

Date: 2009-03-27

Madonna’s lawyer has confirmed the singer will file adoption papers in a Malawi court next week amid reports the toddler she tried to adopt last year has been moved from an orphanage to await collection by the star.
The singer will arrive in the African nation on Saturday to begin her quest to bring a second Malawian child into her family. She finalized the adoption of her son David Banda last year, after two years of legal wrangling.
She will then file official documents to begin the adoption process in a courthouse in the capital city of Lilongwe on Monday, according to her attorney Alan Chinula. (more…)

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