CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS): The controversy over pop star Madonna’s plan to adopt a Malawian boy highlights the need to find solutions for the growing number of orphans in the country, said a Catholic Church official.
Chris Chisoni, who is head of the National Assembly liaison project of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in the Malawian capital, Lilongwe, said, “We can’t solve the problem of orphans until we confront the underlying cause, which is AIDS”.
Half of Malawi’s 1 million orphans have lost one or both parents to AIDS, according to UNICEF.
Meanwhile, a judge in Malawi on October 27 postponed a hearing on Madonna’s adoption of one-year-old David Banda.
An alliance of advocacy groups forming the Human Rights Consultative Committee filed the case, arguing that Malawi’s government broke a law forbidding international adoption by granting rights to Madonna, who funds six orphanages in Malawi and is setting up another.
