AFP: Madonna to file for second Malawian adoption

Pop superstar Madonna is filing legal papers with a Malawi court seeking to adopt a second African child, her lawyer said Thursday.

“We are expected to be in court on Monday to file papers for a possible adoption,” Alan Chinula told AFP.

Chinula said the star was expected to arrive in Malawi, south-eastern Africa, on Saturday.

Madonna’s adoption of toddler David Banda was finalised last year. His father Yohane had left the child at an orphanage to escape poverty in his rural village in Mchinji, in central Malawi.

Madonna had been reported as saying many people especially our Malawian friends, say David should have a Malawian brother or sister.

“It’s something I have been considering, but would only do if I had the support of the Malawian people and government,” she told a Malawian newspaper last week.

A Human Rights Consultative Committee, which spearheaded the legal challenge on the controversial adoption, maintained that Madonna’s adoption of David could allow others to take advantage of the country’s lack of inter-country adoption laws.

The star has already set up a charity in Malawi, Raising Malawi, which provides support for Malawi’s orphans and vulnerable children.

She has already built a multi-purpose community centre at Mphandula village, 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the capital Lilongwe, which looks after more than 8,000 orphans in scores of villages in the area.

From the Agence France Press.