Malawi's other orphans: The children Madonna left behind

Thanks to the pop diva, this week one child from Africa has dominated world news. But back in baby David's home country, Malawi, there are 5.5 million children, one million of whom are orphans, and for them there is no easy life ahead. Steve Bloomfield travels there to meet the forgotten ones

Nannies will tend to his every whim. Bodyguards will patrol his space, keeping the swarms of paparazzi at a safe distance. If the palatial country estate in Wiltshire gets too much for him, he can always spend a bit of time at the six-floor townhouse in Marylebone or the luxury poolside apartment in Los Angeles.

For David Banda, life has changed for ever. Plucked from a run-down orphanage in one of the poorest countries on the planet, baby David is now the son of one of the most famous people in the world. But while the latest addition to Madonna's family begins to adjust to the superstar lifestyle, more than one million orphans are still in Malawi.

For children like 11-year-old Veronica Chipatala, who was found in a basket outside a hospital in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe, when she was just a few days old, or Deliya Kadoni, a curious two-year old with a cheeky grin whose mother died during childbirth, orphanages are the only home they will ever see, the only family they will ever have.

Down a dirt track just off a main road in Lilongwe, the SOS Children's Village is home to more than 100 orphans. "Mothers" are employed for each household - a lifetime appointment for women with no dependents. They care for up to a dozen orphans each who all act as each other's brothers and sisters. "Without us these children would not be here today," said Jeremy Sandbrook, the country director of SOS Children's Villages, an international NGO that cares for orphans and other vulnerable children, providing support to more than 5,000 orphans across Malawi.

In the UK, an orphan is considered to be somebody who has lost both parents. In sub-Saharan Africa a child is considered an orphan if they have lost either parent. So the orphan baby David was waved off to London by his father, one of hundreds of thousands of Malawian parents forced to hand over their child to an orphanage, unable to find enough food to look after them alone.

In the poorest parts of the world it is almost impossible for a lone parent to support a large family. And families here tend to be large. On average, Malawians have 6.2 children. Traditionally, extended families would look after orphaned children. But as Malawi's population continues to grow at an astonishing rate, many families are finding it harder to properly care for nieces and nephews or grandsons and granddaughters left behind.

Despite Malawi's catastrophic Aids epidemic, the country's population is growing by an average of 3.5 per cent each year. Within the next 15 years, population experts predict it will double from 12m to 24m. It can ill afford such a population explosion when even now it is unable to feed all its people. Lilongwe's roads, clogged up with traffic, are full of street children wandering from car to car, begging for food or money. Even by sub-Saharan African terms Malawi is desperately poor.

Aids has ravaged the country: around half its orphans have lost at least one of their parents to the illness. Life expectancy is only 40, the infant mortality rate is one in 10 and one in five children do not make it to five.

For many, education is a distant dream: only 18 per cent of primary school pupils go on to secondary education. Those who do face pupil-teacher ratios of 114:1. Instead, children often find themselves forced into child labour. One third of all 10- 14-year-olds are at work. This is what baby David has left behind.

Until as late as 1994, Malawi was a dictatorship. Kamuzu Banda (the surname is as common as Jones or Smith in Britain) named himself president for life and ruled for 30 years. Families were encouraged to spy on each other, reporting critics of the regime. Today democracy is still in its infancy. Bakili Muzuli, the first democratically elected president following Banda's fall, served two five-year terms blighted by allegations of corruption.

Like many developing countries, Malawi was urged - some would say forced - by the IMF and World Bank to privatise large swathes of its industries. The policies failed and enormous debt repayments helped to cripple the struggling economy. The economy relies entirely on its agricultural output, but the landscape is dust-brown.

Malawi cannot cope with the number of orphans. Around 5.5m people in Malawi are under the age of 15 and at least one million of those are orphans. Some government officials even put the figure as high as 2m.

As he shows off SOS's village including kindergarten, school and health centre, Jeremy Sandbrook, says the growing number of orphans is placing an unbearable strain on the country's already weak infrastructure.

"The sheer magnitude of the problem has resulted in the traditional approach of orphans being absorbed into their extended family reaching breaking point," he says.

"Orphans are seen as an underclass and suffer predominantly from being used as cheap labour by some of those who look after them. The added burden of having to look after orphans at times results in these orphans not getting the basics, in particular an education. Without this they have no future."

Ned Mkumba, a project officer at the Centre for Youth and Children Affairs, says: "Families are already very big. When parents die relatives do not want to extend their family any further. Poverty is the problem and it is now becoming a very big problem."

HIV and Aids is another. Bright yellow billboards along the main roads in Lilongwe proclaim the government's strident HIV awareness message. Next to a grim-faced portrait of President Bingu wa Mutharika, the poster urges Malawians that "now is the time for action on HIV. We need Abstinence, Abstinence and more Abstinence."

Since President Mutharika, a committed, church-going Roman Catholic, came to power last year the country's policies towards reducing the Aids epidemic have changed. His predecessor, President Muzuli, revealed his brother had died from the disease. In a part of the world where the stigma of HIV is still high it was viewed as an encouraging step. But President Mutharika's insistence on an abstinence-only policy has worried health groups.

Officially around 14 per cent of the population is HIV-positive. Tens of thousands of Malawians die from Aids every year, many leaving behind children.

Who is to care for those children has become a difficult issue for those NGOs working in the field. The government has claimed that responsibility lies with the NGOs because they have the expertise. NGOs have, in turn, criticised the government for passing the buck.

Despite having a per capita GDP of only $160, this country has a fleet of swish new Mercedes for its ministers, and the president recently ordered three new limousines. Even without Malawi's leaders helping themselves to the perks of the job, the country would still need far greater financial support.

Madonna, with her Raising Malawi charity, has promised to help do just that. Her £1.5m grant will help support 4,000 orphans and raise awareness of the issue worldwide. She hopes it will also go some way to putting a stop to the criticism of her decision to adopt a Malawian child - criticism which reached bizarre levels last week when the Italian foreign minister, Massimo D'Alema, compared the adoption to a "kidnapping".

Civil rights groups in Malawi are pushing for an injunction on the adoption procedure, claiming that Malawian law was flouted. The Human Rights Consultative Committee (HRCC), a coalition of 67 different organisations in Malawi last week took the government to court for allowing Madonna and Guy Ritchie to start adoption procedures for baby David.

The case, which was adjourned until Friday, has infuriated David's natural father, Yohane Banda, who criticised the groups involved. "Where were these people when David was struggling in the orphanage? These so-called human rights groups should leave my baby alone," he said. "As father I have okayed this, I have no problem. The village has no problem. Who are they to cause trouble? Please let them stop."

Undule Mwakasugura, executive director of the HRCC, says they went to court because adoption laws had been flouted, allowing Madonna to fast track her application. "Government may set a precedent that can legalise child trafficking. Crooks may jump on this and abuse our children," he says.

Nobody is expecting a rush of copycats swarming to Malawi in search of their own baby David. Overseas adoption is rare in sub-Saharan Africa and there has been no notable increase in the past fortnight.

At the Home for Hope, five run-down dormitories run by a clergyman some 110km west of Lilongwe, orphans kick around a wrapped-up ball of rags - their only football.

This was where David's father brought his son less than a year ago after his wife had died in childbirth. For Mr Banda, the orphanage was the only option - the tomatoes and onions he grows barely feed him, let alone a baby boy.

But that option is unlikely to be open to many more fathers. Orphanages in Malawi are now at full capacity and the government will not fund any more. As David settles into his new life, many more children in Malawi will be facing a dangerous and uncertain future.

An extended family: The stories of the sos village kids

Veronica Chipatala, 11

A basket stood on the veranda outside Lilongwe hospital. When doctors looked closer they found a new-born baby, no more than a week old, wrapped up inside. The baby's mother had gone. The baby girl was christened Veronica Chipatala - her surname the Chichewa word for hospital. Her foster mother has become the closest she has ever had to a real mother. "I am happy to live here," she says. "My mum cooks food for me and she washes my clothes."

Deliya Kadoni, 2

Deliya's mother died shortly after giving birth to her. Her father had already died of pneumonia and cerebral malaria. Her grandmother felt unable to look after a baby so, for the first few months of her life, Deliya was left in the hospital with no home to go to. It will be several years until Deliya understands what happened to her real parents. But having been admitted to the children's village, Deliya calls a woman who cares for her "mother" and 11 other children her brothers and sisters.

Isaac Chikuse, 13

With 10 children to look after, Isaac's uncle was struggling. Isaac's parents had died and his father's brother was the only person able to look after them. When many of the children were going hungry, Isaac's oldest brother approached the children's village, asking them to take the three youngest children - including Isaac. "The problems I was facing there I am no longer facing," he says. "Everything here is OK. I have a foster mother and there is a hospital I go to if I become sick."

Madalitso Phiri, 4

Madalitso's name means "blessings", but within one week of his birth, his mother had died: complications during the birth had caused prolonged internal bleeding. Madalitso still has a father but as a subsistence farmer making barely enough to feed himself, let alone his three elder children, he handed Madalitso over to SOS. "I don't hate my son but I cannot support him," he wrote to Madalitso's grandfather. He is trying to raise enough to pay his other children's school fees; Madalitso does not even know his dad exists.

Saukane Seveleno, 12

One day social workers at the orphanage will tell Saukane how his mother died after contracting cerebral malaria. His grandparents took on Saukane and his seven siblings, but it soon became too much and they handed over the four youngest. "When I grow up I want to help people who don't have a mother and father. It is good to help people," he says.

Jude Banda, 17

By the time Jude turned was six, both her parents were dead. She cannot remember what they died from, only that they had both became sick. With her older sister she was admitted to the children's village where she has been ever since. "When I was in my village there was a shortage of food and clothing. Now, everything is provided for me, including education. I want to make sure I do well at school."