Orphanage sells Malawian children to Dutch Agency
Kondanani Orphanage at Bvumbwe in Thyolo district is in partnership with Kind end Toekomst-a Dutch licensed adoption agency which systematically violates Malawian law and the Dutch Ministry of Justice and “buys” orphans from Malawi.
Kind en Toekomst (Foundation Child and Future) officially started an adoption programme from Malawi in 2006 through the partnership with Kondanani Orphanage which is under a Dutch lady Annie Chikhwaza.
Eye of the Child, a local Non Governmental Organization, says Malawi Laws rule that adopters must reside 18 months in Malawi before the adoption.
But that is not the case with the Dutch agency which buys children from Kondanani Orphanage.
“In March 2007 Kind en Toekomst started cooperating with the Malawian children home Kondanani which is led by the Dutch Annie Chikwaza (married to a Malawian). According to Kind en Toekomst, Dutch adopters will only need to stay five weeks in Malawi,” reads update report accessed from one of the websites used by Chikhwaza and her Dutch partners.
Chikhwaza confirms the partnership in her Dutch communication on 29-08-2007 at 21.45 pm on http://wwwprikpagina.nl/read.php?=564&i=21334&t=21328 which was translated into English.
It reads, “…shared with you in my last newsletter that we had entered into an agreement with a Dutch Adoption Organisation. The first parents are here at present and staying with us on the property in one of the houses. They are adopting a set of twins.”
According to http://www.eo.nl/programma/eengoedbegin/2008 09/page/jan_en_Esther_Ekkel_Vorstenbosch/episode.esp?episode, a Dutch couple Jan en Esther Ekkel-Vorstenbosch adopted a two year old Malawian boy within 36 hours of their arrival in Malawi on 15 November 2008.
“36 hours after arriving in Malawi they already have a court appointment and the adoption is finalized. They have to stay some weeks in Malawi, guest house Kondanani, to wait for the visa to be provided by the Dutch Embassy in Zambia.
“They meet the grandmother of the child. Her daughter died and she hadno money to pay for milk powder. Only one of the adoptive parents is allowed to meet the grandmother and the child is not allowed to come. The programme does not make clear if the grandmother knows the childis leaving the country,” reads the site.
Chikhwaza further boasts, “ Several Dutch couples have changed their adoption country to Malawi now. Some are keeping blogs. Look at 24/7/07 htt://www.freewebs.com/joekelje/dagboek.htm .”
On this blog, it is announced that the first Dutch couple got a child proposed in April/May of “this year”.
Another blog, http://www.freewebs.com/nigeriaantje/logboek.htm, Kind en Toekomost says after a very quick procedure, for African principles, the first Dutch couple comes back on 26 August. Everything went well.
Kondanani Orphanage is where pop diva Madonna also adopted a child-Mercy James.
According to Dutch newspaper De Trouw dated 27 June 2007, Kind en Toekomst pays between 12 000 and 25 000 euros for an adoption.
The paper adds that Agency Wereldkinderen (Children of the World) that intermediated in 2005 for 475 children from 15 different countries and one of the largest agencies, calculates between 12 000 to 30 000 euros depending, inter alia, of the country, with or without travel and adoption of one child or three.
The paper adds that for the adoption of a child from Brazil nearly 11 000 euros and the legal fees are 1 810 euros, the country fee is 3 695 euros, the agency costs is 4 410 euros while other expenses are budgeted at about 1 000.
The Children Adoption Act s
ection 3 (5) reads, “an adoption order shall not be made in favour of any applicant who is not a resident in Malawi or in respect of any infant who so resident.”
The Law Commission in its 2001 Review concluded that inter country Adoptions are prohibited in Malawi.
According to US Department of State, “adoptive parents must be resident in Malawi to adopt according to http://travel.state.gov/family/adoption/country/country_417.html .
Everyone is to blame for this.
The person in authority at the Orphanage, who has made this agreement, but from the Madonna adoptions, it is clear the Social Worker system still interviews the parents and visits the children and the adoption only goes through after 2 years, so the child stays with the prospective parents for 2 years on a trial basis.
It turned out at the end that the Fathers (Biological Fathers) were still surviving and the Mothers were dead, the kids were then handed over to the Orphanage to be cared for! So These fathers wanted funds from Madonna and she paid them off.
So who is to blame, our Government perhaps for not having clear guidelines for adoption, society or mentality of the fathers?
Fellow Malawians, I have a few points:
a) The culture of orphanages is very un-malawian. No tribe or culture in Malawi used to advocate for orphanages because we have always believed into a family. The malawian society has had this attitude of compassion towards orphans and everyone used to take responsibility of orphans.
b) The advent of HIV and AIDS is the one which among other things has fostered the proliferation of orphanages. The sad thing is that where money ie donors are involved, there is always the temptation to be motivated by money and not compassion.
c) As a result of b) above, both donors, NGOs and sometimes even us Malawians in general have been tempted to put more focus on Money. In some cases, even kids who are notorphans have been put in orphanages. Again, orphanages, this is my fear, have MADE A CERTAIN CATEGORY OF MALAWIANS to run away from thir responsibilities which they used to have in the olden days. You will recall that both David Banda’s father and Mercy James’ self declared father are living examples of fellow malawians who only surfaced where their kids were identified by Madona. When the kids were ordinary kids in the orphanages, they never had anythings to do with them. I even have many examples of kids who are in SOS villages under the pretext that they are orphans when they are not.
d) What am I saying? I am tring to demonstrate that the very spirit that is in Annee Chikhwaza is also in many of us Malawians because we have lost the good old virtues that we used to have. My fear is that we seem to be hardening our hearts.
e) Further to d), I am sure that you have also noted that in almost 70% of all the cases that are being feature on MBC’s (formerly TVM) REACH OUT AND TOUCH, there is an irresponsible person, For the mai Jumbe case, there is her drunkard son, for the lady with the big breats there is her irreponsible husband, for girl child headed mangochi family, there is her miscellenious behaviour that brought about another kid, for the thyolo kids there is their runaway big sister. I mean I could go on an on. And again my fear is that some of the cases for reach and touch, there might be artificial or cosmetic presentations – at that point, how do we differentiate the genuine from the fake case. I would advise MBC TV to even interview the irresponsible persons who might have been liabilities in the cases that are bein presented.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, shrewedness is everywhere. It is there in the Malawians just as it is there in the azungus who use the predicament of others to enrich themselves. In as much as I am not happy with Mrs Chikhwaza’s tricks (that is if this story is really true), I am also not happy with Malawians who would complain that Chikhwaza does not allow them to see their orphaned relations. If these Malawians are alive and kicking and if they really care about their orphaned relations, why did thy leave them in the orphanages? If the such are like David Banda’s father, they just shut up and reflect on themselves and the responsibilities they left to the dogs.
Cheers and God bless.
God will punish the she devil if she does bad things to the kids. Malawians lets be responsible for our fellow young kids.
Martothino
am malawian by birth and i i got adopted by a white couple from England when i was 2. What they did for me is beyond anything you can imagine. My parents have morals and even though i don’t come often to Malawi i know all about the culture. If i didn’t get adopted i can’t begin to imagine how my life would have been. I plan to settle in Malawi when i finish my studies and i would love to adopt as well at some point. Am studying Law thanks to my wonderful parents. Let the children be given opportunities. Life is way too short.
As Malawians we are good at blaming people and not coming up with solutions. I dont believe your story.
we as a nation have to go back to basics. every child derserves to be brought up in a family environment. The family provides stability and gives the child the ability to face the complex issues thrown at them by the world. Most of the adults that have been brought up in secure/safe and loving home environments know that family is the conerstone of every society. where abuse and exploitation of children is present the community supported by the legislation must be thrive to protect the child. let us strenghthen our family unit and bring up legislation that could for example only allow group homes that has no more than 5 children per house rather than huge institution(orphanages). if these institutions rely on donor funding, surely the emphathy and financial support can be exteded to their foster parents, extended families etc and maintain their identity and contact with their communities.
lets go back to basics, the family and look to our safe extended family ties where abuse or death has occured to maintain the best interest of the hild. institutional care should be the last result and closely monitored to prevent the above issues from occuring if the story is true.
Make sure these kids aren’t breing adopted by sexual predators….please.
Angelina please can you adopt me also that I enjoy what you are enjoying. By the way is Annie Chikhwaza wife to Pastor Chikhwaza, please let me know.
There many orpahans living in pathetic conditions. Have u seen our chldren in the streets in cold season? How many of us have helped? We always blame well wishers and pretend to be wiser. Outsiders take an advantage on our lack of care and love for the less privileged. We have enough people we are able to help here within Malawi but the problem is that we are stingy. We like to receive and we have not learned to give. Most of those who oppose foreign adoptions just fear that the adpoted children will live better lives. Tiziyamba ndife a Malawi. Adopt one tommorow and your negative comment will have some value.