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When American celebrity, [[Madonna (entertainer)]] went to Malawi to adopt a baby in 2008, Kondanani became the target of global media attention. Her adoption of a baby girl from the orphanage was initially rejected by a Malawian Court, causing controversy and Britain's Channel 4 focused on Kondanani in a series entitled ''Madonna and Mercy: What Really Happened''.<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/jun/29/watch-this-television ''Madonna and Mercy: What Really Happened?'' - "Jacques Peretti goes in search of the real story behind Madonna's latest adoption bid. Before the courts granted her permission to take Malawian orphan Mercy James off to a new life in New York, Peretti visited Malawi to interview Mercy's dad and visit the orphanage she came from. With the toddler destined for a disorientating first few months as his new mummy continues touring, our reporter asks whether she would have been better off in the orphanage."]''Julia Raeside, The Guardian, Monday 29 June 2009.''</ref>
When American celebrity, [[Madonna (entertainer)]] went to Malawi to adopt a baby in 2008, Kondanani became the target of global media attention. Her adoption of a baby girl from the orphanage was initially rejected by a Malawian Court, causing controversy and Britain's Channel 4 focused on Kondanani in a series entitled ''Madonna and Mercy: What Really Happened''.<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/jun/29/watch-this-television ''Madonna and Mercy: What Really Happened?'' - "Jacques Peretti goes in search of the real story behind Madonna's latest adoption bid. Before the courts granted her permission to take Malawian orphan Mercy James off to a new life in New York, Peretti visited Malawi to interview Mercy's dad and visit the orphanage she came from. With the toddler destined for a disorientating first few months as his new mummy continues touring, our reporter asks whether she would have been better off in the orphanage."]''Julia Raeside, The Guardian, Monday 29 June 2009.''</ref>


Several newspapers published articles at the time quoting Chikhwaza on the adoption of baby Mercy from the orphanage including ''The Sun'' <ref>[http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news/47898/mercy-calls-out-wheres-mummy?-as-madonna-leaves-malawi ], ''Entertainment Wise'', Jennifer Trevorrow, April 6, 2009</ref> and ''The Daily Mail''.<ref>[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-482008/Is-little-Mercy-girl-Madonna-wants-sister-David.html 'Is little Mercy the girl Madonna wants to be a sister for David' - "The director of Mercy's orphanage, Annie Chikhwaza, was coy when asked if Madonna expressed interest in the child. She denies that only months ago the orphanage asked Mercy's family to let a mystery foreigner adopt her. Mrs Chikhwaza gave this newspaper a tour of the home for 125 children, most of whom have lost parents to AIDS."]''By Stephen Bevan, The Daily Mail, 15 September 2007''</ref>
Several newspapers quoting Chikhwaza on the adoption of baby Mercy from the orphanage including ''The Sun'' <ref>[http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news/47898/mercy-calls-out-wheres-mummy?-as-madonna-leaves-malawi ], ''Entertainment Wise'', Jennifer Trevorrow, April 6, 2009</ref> ''The Daily Mail''.<ref>[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-482008/Is-little-Mercy-girl-Madonna-wants-sister-David.html 'Is little Mercy the girl Madonna wants to be a sister for David' - "The director of Mercy's orphanage, Annie Chikhwaza, was coy when asked if Madonna expressed interest in the child. She denies that only months ago the orphanage asked Mercy's family to let a mystery foreigner adopt her. Mrs Chikhwaza gave this newspaper a tour of the home for 125 children, most of whom have lost parents to AIDS."]''By Stephen Bevan, The Daily Mail, 15 September 2007''</ref>

Dan McDougall of [[the Sunday Times]] visited Kondanani in 2011 and interviewed Chikhwaza as part of an investigation into good and bad aid to Africa. His article 'Ambition impossible' was critical of Madonna's adoption of Mercy and the termination of her project to build a school in the country, while acknowledging that "there are successful orphanages in Malawi" and referring to "Annie Chikhwaza, who operates the highly regarded Kondanani Children’s Village orphanage". <ref>[http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/public/sitesearch.do?querystring=annie+chikhwaza&sectionId=2&p=sto&bl=on&pf=all] Dan McDougall, The Sunday Times, 19 June 2011</ref>


==References==
==References==

Revision as of 14:44, 24 February 2012

Annie Chikhwaza (born 1944) is a Dutch missionary [1] known as a 'Mother of Malawi' [2] for her work with orphans in Africa through Kondanani Children's Village. Many of the orphans are survivors of HIV/AIDS and Chikhwaza has built a village in the Bvumbwe district of Malawi which includes an infant care facility, children's homes, nursery school, primary school and farm.[3]

Early life

Born Antje Saakje Terpstra in Friesland in the Netherlands, the eldest daughter of a family of five children, she trained as a psychiatric nurse in Holland before moving to England in 1965 where she married. She and her husband moved to South Africa the same year and they had four children before they divorced in 1982.[4] In 1980 she started Rhema Alexandra, an organisation aimed at helping to alleviate poverty in what was a volatile township, in the Johannesburg area. In 1993 she married Lewis Chikhwaza, a Malawian pastor and moved to Bvumbwe near Blantyre where she continued to help the poor and started a nursery school. In 1996 she sustained a brutal attack on her life which made headlines in the Malawian media. Malawi News Online reported: "The Dutch woman married to Pastor Lewis Chikhwaza of the Bible Faith Ministries of Blantyre sustained multiple injuries when a horde of angry villagers descended on her executing instant justice." [5] Though she nearly died, Chikhwaza survived the attack and went back to South Africa to recouperate but returned to Malawi 18 months later. Standing with an HIV/AIDS-infected baby, she felt the call to start an orphanage and she and Lewis founded Kondandani Children's Village in 1998.[6]

Kondanani Children's Village

Cross International describes Kondanani as "a Christ-centered orphanage that cares for children from birth until they are fully grown, educated and ready to launch out on their own. Most of the children are AIDS orphans" [7] The Christian relief and development organization also presents a video of the children of Kondanani singing the orphanage anthem, 'Children of Destiny'.[8] Christian television network, GOD TV supports Kondanani and describes its founder: "Annie Chikhwaza is a dedicated caregiver who at a time when other orphanages would not admit babies because of the cost, embarked on admitting these little ones so that they would not be left to die. Now with well over 100 orphans in her care it is heart-rending to see how these children are blossoming and developing skills which will give them a brighter future." [9] The orphanage is financed by family trusts, charities such as Cross International and GOD TV and has received local support from The Press Trust in Malawi.[10]

Journalist Jacques Peretti describes his visit to Kondanani in The Guardian: "I am directed round the immaculate dormitories and play areas and dining hall and creche, walking down pristine paths bordered with stones and flowers... It is all absolutely and undeniably fantastic. It looks like a 19th-century public school in a British colony in Africa - which is pretty much what it is. Everywhere across Malawi, children sit quietly by the roadside, waiting for life to do something terrible to them. Here, they run up to you speaking perfect English, each more impossibly charming and clever and funny and take-home-able than the last."[11]

Media Attention

Chikhwaza has featured on television internationally. The Dutch TV station, Evangelische Omroep (EO) broadcast a documentary on her life, Annie Terpstra, mem in Malawi, and she was featured in an episode of The Helping Dutchman.[12] GOD TV aired a series of weekly interviews with her on In Depth with David Aldous and the work of Kondanani has featured on Behind the Screens with Rory & Wendy Alec.[13]

When American celebrity, Madonna (entertainer) went to Malawi to adopt a baby in 2008, Kondanani became the target of global media attention. Her adoption of a baby girl from the orphanage was initially rejected by a Malawian Court, causing controversy and Britain's Channel 4 focused on Kondanani in a series entitled Madonna and Mercy: What Really Happened.[14]

Several newspapers and magazines have published articles quoting Chikhwaza on the adoption of baby Mercy from the orphanage including The Sun [15], The Daily Mail.[16] and The Sunday Times.

Dan McDougall of the Sunday Times visited Kondanani in 2011 and interviewed Chikhwaza as part of an investigation into good and bad aid to Africa. His article 'Ambition impossible' was critical of Madonna's adoption of Mercy and the termination of her project to build a school in the country, while acknowledging that "there are successful orphanages in Malawi" and referring to "Annie Chikhwaza, who operates the highly regarded Kondanani Children’s Village orphanage". [17]

References

  1. ^ "Rev. Annie Chikhwaza is founder and director of Kondanani, a ministry that offers a home and hope to hundreds of children left orphaned by the AIDS pandemic in Africa. The ministries of Kondanani are located near Blantyre, in Malawi., Faith Christian Fellowship (FCF)
  2. ^ "Annie Terpstra, mem in Malawi", Evangelische Omroep, (EO), Tuesday February 12, 2008.
  3. ^ [1], Faith Christian Fellowship (FCF)
  4. ^ 'Annie Terpstra, mem in Malawi' - "Annie Terpstra was born in Friesland during the war, the eldest daughter of a family of five children. Annie goes to work at Sun and Shield, a psychiatric hospital in Amersfoort. She leaves for England as an au pair. She meets a man and after three months she marries him. They had four children, but marriage is not a success from day one.", Evangelische Omroep, (EO), Tuesday February 12, 2008.
  5. ^ [2]"Malawi News Online, 19 October 1996"
  6. ^ 'Annie Terpstra, mem in Malawi' - "Annie's life is no longer safe. She is surrounded by fifty wild men and women with knives and axes, she thinks that her end has come. After a long recovery period in Johannesburg she comes back stronger than ever. As she stands with a baby with AIDS in her arms, she knows that she has a great role to play.", Evangelische Omroep, (EO), Tuesday February 12, 2008.
  7. ^ - 'Kondanani Children's Village - Blantyre, Malawi'- "The AIDS pandemic has orphaned more than 1 million children in Malawi. Support a Christ-centered orphanage — Kondanani Children’s Village — where 130 orphaned and abandoned babies receive the love and care they need to thrive." "Cross International"
  8. ^ 'Children of Destiny' Cross International
  9. ^ 'Kondanani Childrens Village - Psalm 68:5 - A Father to the fatherless' - "Annie Chikhwaza is a dedicated caregiver and the founder of Kondanani who at a time when many other orphanages would not admit babies because of the cost, embarked on admitting these little ones so that they would not be left to die in the villages. Now with well over 100 orphans in her care it is heart-rending to see how these children are blossoming and developing all kinds of skills which will give them a brighter future." "GOD TV"
  10. ^ 'Investing in Malawi's Future'"The Press Trust"
  11. ^ 'Madonna, Mercy and Malawi: her fight to adopt a second African child' - "I am directed round the immaculate dormitories and play areas and dining hall and creche, walking down pristine paths bordered with stones and flowers and intermittently nodding to enthusiastic, sandal-wearing volunteers. It is all absolutely and undeniably fantastic. It looks like a 19th-century public school in a British colony in Africa - which is pretty much what it is. Everywhere across Malawi, children sit quietly by the roadside, waiting for life to do something terrible to them. Here, they run up to you speaking perfect English, each more impossibly charming and clever and funny and take-home-able than the last." "Jacques Peretti, The Guardian, Friday 12 June 2009"
  12. ^ "Annie Terpstra, mem in Malawi", Evangelische Omroep, (EO)
  13. ^ 'GOD TV celebrates 10 years in Africa' - "The BTS Africa specials include… an update on the work of Annie Chikhwaza at Kondanani Children’s Village, televised from Malawi" "GOD TV - Friday February 10, 2012"
  14. ^ Madonna and Mercy: What Really Happened? - "Jacques Peretti goes in search of the real story behind Madonna's latest adoption bid. Before the courts granted her permission to take Malawian orphan Mercy James off to a new life in New York, Peretti visited Malawi to interview Mercy's dad and visit the orphanage she came from. With the toddler destined for a disorientating first few months as his new mummy continues touring, our reporter asks whether she would have been better off in the orphanage."Julia Raeside, The Guardian, Monday 29 June 2009.
  15. ^ [3], Entertainment Wise, Jennifer Trevorrow, April 6, 2009
  16. ^ 'Is little Mercy the girl Madonna wants to be a sister for David' - "The director of Mercy's orphanage, Annie Chikhwaza, was coy when asked if Madonna expressed interest in the child. She denies that only months ago the orphanage asked Mercy's family to let a mystery foreigner adopt her. Mrs Chikhwaza gave this newspaper a tour of the home for 125 children, most of whom have lost parents to AIDS."By Stephen Bevan, The Daily Mail, 15 September 2007
  17. ^ [4] Dan McDougall, The Sunday Times, 19 June 2011

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