THE orphanage where Madonna adopted her son has revealed that the pop star rejected seven “genuine” orphans before picking baby David.

Lucy Chipeta, executive director of the Home for Hope orphanage, attempted to block the adoption of David Banda because of concerns about him being separated from his father.

“Of course this was a chance for David, but he had a parent. There are other desperate children and we would have loved her to take one of them,” she said.

The revelation came amid concerns that Madonna was unaware of baby David’s family background when she adopted him. Last week she claimed that his father had played no role in his life.

She told BBC’s Newsnight: “That’s why I became interested in him. If somebody had said to me ‘Oh, his dad comes every week’, or ‘his granny visits on a regular basis and he’s well looked after,’ I would not even have given it another thought.”

According to Chipeta, Yohane Banda used to cycle 36km to see his son up to three times a week. He took him to the Home for Hope orphanage in Mchinji after his wife Malita died days after giving birth to him.

“David’s father used to visit him three times a week and sometimes even more whenever word reached him that his son was sick. He was so close to his son we had doubts that he was going to allow David to go away,” Chipeta said.

The adoption process began earlier this year when the Malawian government drew up a shortlist of 12 one-year-old boys for Madonna to choose from. David was not one of them.

In July a camera crew from Madonna’s Raising Malawi charity visited the country and filmed the children. Seven of them were based at the Home for Hope orphanage, where three were singled out for special attention.

They were Wezi, whose mother had Aids and died shortly after giving birth to him, Chisomo, whose parents had both died of Aids, and Paul, who was abandoned by his father and whose mother was mentally ill.

During their visit, however, the crew came across David as he crawled out of his room. “They all stopped in amazement and the cameras started clicking,” said Chipeta. “Two women who were on the crew immediately lifted him up and loved this boy. We were not surprised because everyone who saw David just fell in love with him.”

After viewing the pictures, Madonna began making inquiries about the boy. Penston Kilembe, Malawi’s director of child welfare, contacted the orphanage and asked for more details, but Chipeta had concerns.

“He told us that the people that came to see the seven kids wanted to adopt David. We were not even told at this time that it was Madonna who was interested in the child,” she said.

“We argued with him and said to him that he should take the other children, not David, because he had a father. There were other desperate boys who did not have relatives to see them.”

On October 4, Madonna made her first visit to the orphanage. After handing out copies of her new children’s book and briefly meeting Chimoso, Wezi and Paul, she spent the rest of her visit with David.

She and her husband, Guy Ritchie, were clearly taken with the boy. They returned two days later to spend more time with him. “They played together and we watched,” said Chipeta. “What surprised me was how humble she was, sitting down on the dirty floor, cuddling the child and laughing with him.”

David, however, was not well. According to Jane Muhenga, his foster mother, he was suffering from pneumonia and had twice been admitted to hospital. As a result he was not initially considered suitable for adoption.

“He was on and off. He was sick, could not stretch his legs and arms and had convulsions. He had pneumonia but was a brave boy,” Muhenga said.

He began to recover, however, after being treated by a doctor who accompanied Madonna on her visit. Within a week her bodyguards arrived to take David away. He was driven with his foster mother to the ranch where the pop singer and her entourage were staying.

“It was like a movie,” said Chipeta. “At around midday her bodyguards called me and said I should prepare David. They drove in and one of them immediately put David on his back. He moved into the car so that no one could see them and minutes later they sped off.”

Madonna has since returned to Britain with the boy, but faces growing criticism in Malawi. A group of human rights organisations is going to court in two weeks’ time to challenge the legality of the adoption.

Boniface Mandere, of Eye of the Child, the Malawian child welfare organisation, said: “This child is not a full orphan, he has a father, he has a grandmother, he has a community. There are other orphans looking for support and that’s a real concern for us.”

Asitineti Mwale, who says she is David’s grandmother, also contradicted the singer’s claim that he had been abandoned by his family: “That’s a lie. We used to visit David often and every time he felt sick we used to get a message from the orphanage and one of the nephews or myself went to see him.”

A spokesman for Madonna said: “That’s not the information Madonna received.”

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