The one-year-old boy that Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie plan to adopt has spent his first night in the couple's London townhouse last night after he arrived at Heathrow yesterday following a long flight from his native Malawi via South Africa.
The couple have come under fire from media commentators as well as numerous aid agencies which have criticised their actions as selfish.
The move has raised further eyebrows after the child's father revealed he had placed his son in an orphanage because of his poverty and there is further speculation that Madonna has jumped through several legal loopholes putting their keenness to adopt above the best interests of the child.
Yesterday, Madonna and Guy defended their planned adoption of David Banda, saying it would help one child to "escape an extreme life of hardship and poverty".
Philippa Lei is World Vision's Child's Rights Advisor. She spoke to Christian Today about the charity's response to Madonna's planned adoption, the growing trend of inter-country adoption, and the welfare of children in poor children.
CT: In terms of celebrities and inter-country adoption, Angelina Jolie has already set that precedent but when she did it she didn't get half the reaction that Madonna's planned adoption has gotten. What is it about Madonna's case that is so particularly explosive this time, do you think?
PL: It's hard to say. I was thinking the same thing myself. I think there are probably a number of factors. I guess because it's becoming more of a trend and people are picking up on it more every time a new celebrity does it. There is also the status of Madonna; obviously she is a massive name, known by everyone. I think that probably has an impact.
But also, we as a charity have been given quite a lot of information about the actual case that we haven't been heard before and there are certain irregularities to it that have caused concern among some parties, ourselves included.
What are those concerns?
The major two concerns centre around World Vision's belief that children are best brought up in their families and communities where that's possible; that that's the best option for them. And in this case we know the child being adopted does actually have a living relative; he has a father, grandparents, uncles, who are willing to look after the child but can't because of poverty.
So what we would actually like to see happen is to see the family enabled by Madonna or by some other agency or state provision to be able to look after the child themselves in that family rather than shipping the child out.
