Madonna to air new documentary

Madonna's documentary about Africa, I Am Because We Are, will receive its world premiere on Wednesday April 23, on the opening night of the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

As part of the Encounters series, the film sees the singer embracing her new role as writer-producer to expose the tragic stories of the millions of Malawi children orphaned by Aids.


The 85-minute film, following the Queen of Pop's revelatory personal journey, features interviews with former US President Bill Clinton and retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu, with Madonna calling for action.

"I wanted to offer simple solutions and to illustrate how simple things really do make a difference in a person's life. It is easy for us to be involved with the solution," says the 49-year-old, whose 11th album Hard Candy is released on Monday April 28, in the latest issue of Interview.

"When I went there for the first time, I saw that I needed to document my journey.

"I wanted to go on a journey with these children to find out for myself what was going to make a difference in their lives and document that.

"The more I went to Malawi and observed things, the more I realised that people are layered, so solving their problems is layered. The worst thing you can do to help a person is to just throw a bunch of stuff at them and run away."

Malawi are on a roll

Basketball PLAYERS rolling around on the floor could be the unexpected sight at Sheffield Arena on Monday
The Malawi Queens will unleash their unique traditional celebration if they beat England in what will be the first international netball fixture played in Sheffield.

Singing and dancing will feature in the visitor's warm-up but Malawi hope to be no roll-over for England's stars.

Malawi, ranked fifth in the world, will look to avenge their 81-37 defeat to England at the World Championships in New Zealand last November. The three-match international series will head to Coventry and London on Wednesday and Friday.

"Spectators at these test matches should expect some very different play, with plenty of excitement and thrills – and watch out for some unusual moves, particu
larly in the circle areas," said Nigel Holl, England Netball's Director of Netball.

Netball is the top women's sport in Malawi.

Be tough on Madonna adoption: Malawi rights group

BLANTYRE - Tough conditions should be attached to pop star Madonna's adoption of a Malawi boy, a human rights group said Friday, warning unscrupulous traffickers may use the case to justify illegal adoption.

Maxwell Matewere, a spokesman for the Human Rights Consultative Committee, which attempted to legally challenge the controversial adoption, said a Malawi court should attach "tough guidelines" if it grants Madonna permanent custody.

Matewere warned Madonna's controversial adoption of toddler David Banda could allow others to take advantage of Malawi's lack of inter-country adoption laws.

"Others might apply to adopt and use the Madonna case to justify adoption and yet they could be illegal adoptions for trafficking, organs and sexual exploitation," he warned.

The high court is expected to set a date next week to rule on whether Madonna can officially adopt David, who has been living in London with the star and her filmmaker husband Guy Ritchie under an interim custody order.

The granting of the temporary order ignited a storm of protest from the local rights group and heated debate about adoption laws in the poor southern African nation.

The Malawi government is widely expected to back permanent adoption of David by Madonna and her filmmaker husband Guy Ritchie. It was not clear whether Madonna would appear in court, which her lawyer has said she is not compelled to do when the ruling is made.

Malawi, where the number of orphans has peaked to one million as a result of AIDS, is reforming its laws to allow easier adoptions by foreigners.

David was brought to an orphanage in Mchinji, 110 kilometres (70 miles) from Lilongwe, by his father Yohane Banda after his mother died shortly after birth. His father, who ekes out a living as a peasant farmer, said he let his son be adopted by Madonna to escape grinding poverty rampant in the southern African nation.

$25m in funding secured for Malawi water-development programme

The World Bank, the lead financier of the multimillion-dollar national water development programme in Malawi, has signed an for a $25-million grant to be used as additional funding for the second phase of the programme.

Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe, says the money will be used for the urban water-supply and sanitation component of the programme, which involves the development of piped water supply-systems in cities, towns and market centres.

The grant, which is the second financial package from the bank for the second phase of the programme – after an initial injection of $50-million – will be used to acquire spare parts for water pumps, rehabilitation and maintenance work, and baseline surveys in the cities of Lilongwe and Blantyre to ascertain how unserviced low-income or peri-urban areas can also gain access to safe water.

The Malawi government is implementing the national water development programme through various water boards.

World Bank country manager in Malawi Timothy Gilbo says the $25-million grant has been derived from the Africa Catalytic Growth Fund (ACGF), a multidonor trust fund, and that Malawi has been chosen as a beneficiary because of its excellent economic performance.

"Through the grant, we hope Malawi will achieve sustainable economic growth because without good water and sanitation, economic growth cannot be fully realised," says Gilbo.

He says the Bank hopes the programme will yield results in United Nations' Millennium Development Goal number 7, which is to ensure environmental sustainability by having the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

"We hope that in 12-months time, people will be able to point at real benefits (of the grant) on the ground," says Gilbo.

The second phase of the national water development programme is a five-year project that is meant to ensure that 500 000 people have new or improved water supply services, that 4 040 connections are rehabilitated, that 1 700 new community water points are established, that 3 700 new water connections are installed, and that about 2 25-million people have improved sanitation.

In a related development, the Central Region Water Board is inviting tenders for the supply of pipes and fittings, and new water-connection materials.

Bidding will be conducted in line with the World Bank's international competitive bidding procedures, and bid documents may be obtained on paying $40.

Malawi launched the second phase of the national water development programme last year, after completing the first phase, which was implemented at a cost of over $800-million.

The other financiers of the programme include the European Union and the government of the Netherlands.