Angelina Jolie
© AFP/Getty Images28 Feb 2007 (Sawf News) - Last Sunday Angelina Jolie, 31, had more on her mind than the Oscar awards that evening as she jetted off on a two-day mission to a refugee camp in eastern Chad.
"She wants to galvanize action to end the horrors these people are living through," International Crisis Group's John Prendergast (who's worked with the actress before) told Us.
In Jolie's absence partner Brad Pitt, 43, did the honors of playing Mr. Mom to the couple's three children (Maddox, 5, Zahara, 2, and Shiloh, 9 months) back at their New Orleans mansion.
Jolie traveled through a sandstorm on Monday to reach the Oure-Cassoni refugee camp that houses 26,000 refugees and is one of the 12 UNHCR-run camps in eastern Chad that together house 230,000 refugees from Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
She spent the day with school children from Darfur listening to tales of their daily life and their aspirations to return one day to their homeland in Darfur. Later, that day she visited mentally ill refugees.
On Tuesday, the UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador visited a man-made reservoir that feeds the camp with water, but which is now almost empty following disappointing rains last year.
Concerned with what she saw, Jolie wrote an 868-word op-ed piece for Wednesday's editions of The Washington Post.
"By every measure - killings, rapes, the burning and looting of villages - the violence in Darfur has increased since my last visit, in 2004. ... It was estimated then that more than 1,000 people were dying each week," she says in her report datelined Bahai, Chad.
"I hope the international community will intervene, right away, to protect the people of Darfur and prevent further violence. The refugees don't need more resolutions or statements of concern. They need follow-through on past promises of action, " she pleads.
Jolie was not allowed to visit Darfur itself due to the violent, unstable conditions there.
As you can well imagine, Jolie did not spend most of last week fretting about the designer dress she had to strut on the red carpet at the Kodak Theatre on Sunday evening.
News Copyright © Sawf News. May not be reproduced without explicit written permission
We need more Angelina Jolie.
the soother of the wounded...
the flag carrier of the defeated...
the voice of the unspoken...
I would have done the same deeds with the same opportunity and official calling. The true measure is her sacrifices, the selflessness and the strength to share to those who were imprisoned and denied because of their ugly circumstances and politics.
Jolie is an excellent bridge to the underprivileged and the dying. She gives life to where a hope is just an imagination .
I wish her the best as she is worthy of a happy life as her eyes have seen and her ears have heard and her voice has trembled in the presence of these brutality and injustice.
She makes me feel proud being a woman.
Helen Suck Esteban, NC, 28 Feb 2007
Do you really care about people in these countries you visit? I think you are using this all as a publicity stunt to make yourself look good.
Karen, 05 Mar 2007