Oscar winner Angelina Jolie was officially named a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Committee For Refugees (UNHCR) on Monday in Geneva after returning from a heart-breaking trip to Pakistan. The Girl, Interrupted star was moved to tears as she described her recent meetings with Afghan refugees, describing conditions in the camps as “frightening” and “shocking”.
“It’s still very hard to talk about it,” she said of her journey to the poverty-stricken land. “It is the worst situation I think, because there is no end in sight for the needs of these people.”
The 26-year-old beauty was buoyed by the spirits of those she met, many of whom survived on scraps of food found in dumpsters. “I was surprised to sit down with these women and their children and talk with them, and they were so kind and warm and funny and generous and hard-working and grateful for any little help they could get,” she said at the ceremony on Monday. “And they are living in a situation I don’t think anybody in this room could survive for more than a few days.”
Angelina aims to not only address the US Congress on the issue but to also reach out to people worldwide. “People need to understand that all of the refugees, if they had a chance, would like to go home,” she says. “They are saving their lives and trying to survive and keep their families alive.”
Members of the UNHCR hope the Tomb Raider beauty’s involvement will have an impact on her fans. “We look after 22 million people, and that is hardly known by young people,” says High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers. “She can show her personal commitment as a young person to convince the younger generation that something has to be done here.”
The sultry actress has been quietly making trips with the UNHCR, paying her own way on missions to war-torn Sierra Leone. In her revealing travel diary published on the organisation’s website, Angelina details her first jaunts in February.
“I don’t know why I think I can make any kind of difference,” she writes. “All I know is that I want to.”
Upon returning home in early March, she cried herself to sleep recounting the memories of those she had just met. “What I am reminding myself is that these problems do not disappear just because we do not hear about them,” writes Angelina. “And in that thought – there is so much more happening around the world than what is communicated to us on the top stories we do hear.”
To read more of Angelina’s diary log on to www.usaforunhcr.org/journal.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
