MALAWI: Madonna heads back to Malawi to visit orphanage

Pop star Madonna heads back to Malawi and the location of her controversial adoption of a young boy. With Madonna expected to visit Malawi soon, orphans at 'Consol home', a centre that Madonna has sponsored to built a children's orphan home are busy waiting for her arrival. "Most of us orphans will I've in the centre that Madonna has constructed. We know that whatever has been donated will help us all. We are very happy for this gesture and we wish that she will continue," Mirriam Magombo, an orphan at the 'Consol homes' orphanage told Reuters. Mirriam Magombo, leader of orphans at the 'Consol homes' says the new centre which has now been completed will enable more orphans from the villages around get education, food and health care. Over 65 villages surrounding the new orphanage will have their children benefit from the centre. Meanwhile, preparations for the official handover of the centre are starting next Monday (April 16). While the 'Consol homes' does not encourage adoption, the director for the home Yasintha Chapomba says depending on the situation of the child to be adopted, adoption on its own could either be good or bad. She could no clarify whether, if approached she would offer a child for adoption. "Most of the times it depends on the situation of the child. I cannot say this is bad, this is good but according to my understanding, adoption is good and sometimes bad because when the child leaves the country, he goes where many things will be changing to him and I don't know when he grows up if he can come back and remember and understand the situation of his or her own country. So adoption is sometimes good or bad but mainly it's sometimes bad because when children leave their homes and when they come back they feel something new, they feel something strange and I don't know if they can understand that it's their original home," Yasintha Chapomba told Reuters.

ITN Source | April 15, 2007

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