News reports about U.S. pop star Madonna adopting a Malawian child have focused attention on foreign adoptions -- and raised questions about whether it's in an African child's best interest to be spirited away to the wealthy West.
The adoption of children from poorer nations -- Cambodia, Ethiopia, Romania -- by rich foreigners has been happening for decades. Angelina Jolie first adopted Maddox from Cambodia, and then Zahara from Ethiopia.
Mia Farrow, now the mother of 14, began adopting children from poor countries in 1973, an orphan from the Vietnam War.
At the heart of the matter is the motivation of people wanting to adopt orphans from troubled countries, especially HIV-positive children.
In Africa, orphans usually are absorbed into extended families, but AIDS has affected many of the people who might have traditionally provided support. The answer is supporting the community.
Which is what Eye of the Child, a child rights group in Malawi, has called on Madonna to do. In an open letter the organization urges her to help fund existing programs in Malawi to help vulnerable children. The group also applauded efforts by her charity Raising Malawi, which aims to set up an orphan care center.
It proposed a fund that would "support extended family systems, offer education and financial support for secondary school going orphans, improve community participation and other community-based approaches to care for orphans. We believe that this type of efforts do not create and develop a dependency syndrome."
[AP]
Note: Currently, though 99% of the work to counter the spread of HIV is being done at the grassroots level in many African countries, little funding is going to these community-based organizations. So consider a good community-based organization actually caring for orphans and support them. For more details.
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