Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga will spend the next 14 years in a Malawi jail, sentenced to hard labor.
They aren't murderers. They didn't steal. In fact, they didn't commit a crime.
They were convicted of homosexuality.

I call upon the progressive men and women of Malawi -- and around the world -- to challenge this decision in the name of human dignity and equal rights for all.
Please add your name to mine in a pledge of support for the freedom to love:
http://www.raisingmalawi.org/FreedomToLove

I am shocked and saddened by the recent decision made by the Malawian court. As a matter of principle, I believe in equal rights for all people, no matter what their gender, race, color, religion, or sexual orientation.
This week, Malawi took a giant step backward. The world is filled with pain and suffering; therefore, we must support our basic human right to love and be loved.
I will not sit back and be silent while two men are sentenced to 14 years hard labor simply for loving each other. I hope you will add your name to mine, and speak out to your friends and family on this issue:
http://www.raisingmalawi.org/FreedomToLove
Love,
Madonna

Source: Raising Malawi

Madonna has today accepted undisclosed substantial damages from UK newspaper The Daily Mail following their having printed private photos of her wedding to UK film director Guy Ritchie in the newspaper on October 19th, 2008.
Madonna, who was not at London's High Court on Tuesday for the settlement had been seeking more than £5m in damages in her action against Associated Newspapers. It was announced that the damages awarded will be paid to Madonna's charity Raising Malawi.
Madonna's solicitor, John Kelly, said she had gone to great lengths to ensure the wedding was kept private and had chosen not to sell pictures to the media. "It was far more important to the claimant that the privacy of the occasion was maintained," he added.
Solicitor Niri Shan, acting for Associated Newspapers, offered its apologies to the singer and her family for invading her privacy and infringing her copyright.
Source: BBC News, MadonnaTribe

Click the image to see larger photo and to read Madonna's letter. Please, also visit http://www.raisingmalawi.org/

Madonna's documentary titled "I Am Because We Are" has been PREMIERED unexpectedly during a Spirituality for Kids event at the Ilana Goor Museum in Old Jaffa, Israel.

The documentary is very beautiful and touching, a source told Drowned Madonna. It focuses on the poor, full of suffering lives of Malawi children. It shows how AIDS effected Malawi children lives, since most of them lost their parents due to the AIDS disease and have to live on the streets.

Finally, "I Am Because We Are" shows how the Spirituality For Kids program, Raising Malawi, brought them light and hope... gives them the chance to change their future.

More:
www.iambecauseweare.com
www.iambecausewearefilm.com

Sources: Madonna Fanzine, Drowned Madonna

More informations at http://www.raisingmalawi.org/

There is some rumours or buzz in the industry in Toronto that Madonna will be premiering her Documentary of Malawi, at Toronto’s International film festival this September.

We'll let you know more as info comes in.

Madonna has left Malawi without letting the father of her adopted son see his only child, it has been claimed. Farmer Yohane Banda is said to be distraught after two meetings for him to be reunited with 18-month-old David were cancelled.

The singer visited the African country last week with baby David and daughter Lourdes, where she spent time working on projects for her charity, Raising Malawi.

Although the trio went to the Home of Hope orphanage, where Madonna first met David last year, the much-publicised father and son reunion failed to materialise.

A source told People magazine: “Yohane was there all day on Saturday and in the morning of her visit.

“He was told he would spend some time with his son but the meeting was cancelled.”

Madonna’s representative, Liz Rosenberg, said she did not know whether the reunion took place. During the trip, it was revealed Madonna had met the three year-old Malawian girl she reportedly wants to adopt.

Despite her publicist denying she is to adopt again, Madonna reportedly told friends she is looking for a sister for David and is considering welcoming orphan Grace into her family.

A source said: “Madonna was talking with Grace and looked very happy. They were together for about 15 minutes.”

Download:

File Name: 2007 M @ Malawi - 50mn Inside TF1 Report.mpg
Size: 108MB
Download Link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/5p7gqu

French tv show "50 Min Inside" featured a much anticipated report about Madonna's return to Malawi tonight.
The best part was certainly in the footage they shown from this past week - that is basically the reel version of the agency images that have been circulating since last Monday as you can see by the captures below.
The worst part was the programme's attempt to "reveal the truth" about what they call "The Madonna Malawi Enigma" - that failed to separate facts from rumours and largely indulged in presenting gossip as true stories in a quite rushed four minute report - aslo thanks to rather questionable "people in the know" like Madonna biographer Florence Rajon who basically made a nice bucket of all the latest trash from the UK press and talked about it as if she was personally sure that was the naked truth. The reasons behing Guy's abscence from Malawi, "adoption for money" deal and second adoption tale included, of course.
Wonder why the Ritchies don't watch the telly?

Wearing a T-shirt proclaiming “Love” and dancing to the rhythm of a pop song, Madonna opened a day care center Thursday, one of the projects she is funding in impoverished, disease-stricken Malawi.

The pop star and the Malawian toddler she wants to adopt, David Banda, were greeted by singing children as she toured the project, which is being run by a local charity Consol Homes.

The center will eventually provide education and food for up to 4,000 children from surrounding rural areas, trying to break the vicious cycle of lack of education, hunger and sickness that afflicts many Malawians.

“You should not expect much from me alone but we are working together as a partnership,” Madonna told local officials.

The pop star caused international controversy last year when she took then 14-month-old David from a Malawian orphanage back to London. Critics accused her of using her celebrity status to flout Malawian restrictions on adoptions. Her latest visit to Malawi, to check on projects run by her Raising Malawi organization, has won praise from many here who say she has shown she cares about their plight.

Tight security has accompanied the star throughout her stay and it remains unclear whether she has met with Yohane Banda, father of David. The boy’s mother died in childbirth and his father sent him to an orphanage, saying he was too poor to care for him.

Madonna’s entourage visited David’s old orphanage on Tuesday. Thursday, she hushed the boy, clad in blue dungarees, at the day care center when he cried after being handed to a nanny.

The director of Consol Homes, Jacinta Chapombsa, said parents would be able to bring their children to the day care center safe in the knowledge they would receive a basic education and food.

Local children performed the Paul Simon-Joseph Shabalala hit “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes”, playing traditional instruments and singing. Madonna danced to the refrain.

Famous pop star Madonna will not meet South Africa’s former president Nelson Mandela, his office said on Thursday.

“There was never any meeting scheduled between the two. They will not be meeting tomorrow,” said a receptionist at Mandela’s office who declined to be named.

The Sunday Times reported that Madonna would during her visit to Malawi pop over to meet Madiba in South Africa on Friday.

Madonna is in Malawi to continue her charity work with the Raising Malawi organisation and to allow her adopted son David Banda to visit his home country.

Media reports also suggested that Madonna wanted to adopt a second child, allegations which the pop star has denied.

Madonna, 48, caused a storm last year when she went to Malawi to adopt the one-year-old boy.

Adoption groups accused her of using her celebrity status to bypass laws about foreigners adopting from Malawi.

source : news24

Famous pop star Madonna will not meet South Africa’s former president Nelson Mandela, his office said on Thursday.

“There was never any meeting scheduled between the two. They will not be meeting tomorrow,” said a receptionist at Mandela’s office who declined to be named.

The Sunday Times reported that Madonna would during her visit to Malawi pop over to meet Madiba in South Africa on Friday.

Madonna is in Malawi to continue her charity work with the Raising Malawi organisation and to allow her adopted son David Banda to visit his home country.

Media reports also suggested that Madonna wanted to adopt a second child, allegations which the pop star has denied.

Madonna, 48, caused a storm last year when she went to Malawi to adopt the one-year-old boy.

Adoption groups accused her of using her celebrity status to bypass laws about foreigners adopting from Malawi.

source : news24

Today's Daily Mail: "Madonna is also planning to build a home for her family in Malawi. She plans to spend up to a month a year there", the Daily Mail says.

THE SUN: Raising Malawi helper Chrispin Chikoto said: "She wants a sister for David. She wants to help the whole country. She's a saint."

Daily Mail

THE SUN

Malawians hold up posters for Madonna as she visits a center for street children, Wednesday, April 18, 2007 in the Malawian capital, Lilongwe. Madonna and her daughter visited a center for street children Wednesday that is benefiting from the charity work the star is doing in the impoverished southern African country.

Madonna talk to an aide as she leave a center for street children.

Madonna and her daughter Lourdes, right, arrive at a center for street children.

Malawians try to catch a glimpse of Madonna as she leave a center for street children.

Madonna visited a Malawi rehabilitation center for children and prostitutes on Wednesday amid calls by local media for greater transparency in the pop star’s activities in the country.

A day after teenagers threw stones at journalists trying to cover the U.S. pop diva’s visit to a local orphanage, she was greeted by people waving welcoming signs before being whisked into the center while reporters were kept outside.

"Welcome Madonna, Adopt More Poor Orphans," said one sign said, referring to the star’s adoption of a young Malawian boy.

The influential Daily Times newspaper said it backed Madonna’s pledge to help Malawi, but urged the star and her handlers to be more open after the furore surrounding her last trip when she started the adoption process.

"It is surprising that just like her first trip, Madonna’s second trip to Malawi is also shrouded in secrecy," the Daily Times said in an editorial.

"This kind of behavior is what gives room to speculation and in the end, people are fed with wrong information which may lead to wrong conclusions and actions."

Madonna’s spokeswoman has flatly denied media reports the star was considering adopting a second Malawian child, saying her current trip was aimed at promoting her charitable work.

But the controversy has continued amid a lack of official information about her activities.

Schoolchildren pelted reporters’ cars with stones on Tuesday to keep them away from the orphanage where she brought one-year old David Banda -- the boy she is adopting -- to meet his biological father.

The director of the orphanage on Monday vowed security during the visit would be tight and said Madonna’s camp had requested the media be kept out.

Madonna eventually invited journalists into the orphanage where she answered a few questions and posed for photographs with Banda and her daughter Lourdes.

The visit comes some six months after Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie signed interim adoption papers for Banda, who will stay with the couple for 18 months before a decision by the Malawian government on whether to finalize the adoption.

The decision to take Banda back to Britain sparked criticism from some rights groups that Madonna was using her fame and wealth to circumvent adoption laws in the country. The singer denied the charges.

Madonna is paying for a new clinic to be built in the Malawian village of Gumulira and is supporting efforts by aid groups to help improve food security and education there.

The Social and Rehabilitation center, a small white building in a Lilongwe township, is another beneficiary of Madonna’s Raising Malawi charity.

Source: Reuters.

Her bid to whisk a one-year-old boy away from a life of poverty in an orphanage may have raised hackles elsewhere but for the people of Malawi, Madonna is a hero with her heart in the right place.

Eight months after she began the process to adopt little David Banda, the US singer returned to the impoverished southern African nation this week not only with her latest charge but also her biologicial daughter Lourdes.

But while accusations that her fame and wealth enabled her to fast-track the adoption process continue, the warm reception locals accorded Madonna and David indicated most are enchanted rather than appalled by the rags-to-riches story.

Gloria Yotamu was one of several hundred Malawians who gathered at David’s old orphanage near the capital Lilongwe on Tuesday to watch the youngster return to his old stomping ground with his prospective mother.

Yotamu said she was particularly impressed that Madonna had brought David back to his roots so quickly and not simply immersed him in a new life of luxury at the star’s mansion in London.

"I know about her charity work and her wish to give David a good life," said Yotamu, who lives in a nearby squatter camp.

"Many people thought David was gone for good but here she is, returning the son to his roots and culture," said the 26-year-old who is herself the mother of four children.

Local human rights groups have challenged an interim adoption order that was granted to Madonna last year and even some of the singer’s fellow celebrities have questioned her motives, including the actress Angelina Jolie who called the adoption "illegal".

Madonna herself has been taken aback by some of the reaction, telling People magazine: "I did not expect the media, the government or any human rights organisations to take a stand against me trying to save a child’s life."

According to Funsanani Yakobe, who makes his living by breaking stones in a a quarry close to the luxury lodge where Madonna has been staying, the carpers should keep quiet and instead ask what the government is doing for orphans.

"If there is someone like Madonna to help improve the lives of orphans, let it be, because we are failing to help ourselves," he said. "Where does all the money that is meant for orphans go?" he asked.

The number of orphans is growing rapidly in Malawi as a result of the AIDS pandemic which has not only claimed the lives of so many parents but also of relatives who would have once taken care of the youngsters.

Although David’s father is still alive, his mother died shortly after she gave birth in September 2005.

During her latest visit, Madonna also chatted with street children and prostitutes at a government-run rehabilitation centre in the capital Lilongwe where a number of wellwishers held placards reading: "Madonna you are welcome" and "Don’t listen to critics: We love you!"

Even among sceptics, Madonna’s return to swift return to Malawi had allayed any fears they had about her motives.

Alfred Chapomba, founder of the Consol Homes orphans charity, said he does not believe in adoptions but rather believes orphans be raised in their same cultural and social backgrounds.

However he said Madonna had helped raise the profile of Malawi.

"Many people out there did not know the country existed and thought we are part of South Africa," he said.

"We need more goodwill people like her," he added.

Source: AFP.