Hero to the homeless - Angelina Jolie - actor uses celebrity status to better the rights of refugees

Current Events, Jan 23, 2004

For some stars, when the music stops or the curtain goes down, important issues take center stage. Kids are P. Diddy's cause, illiteracy makes Faith Hill "cry," and domestic violence hits home with Missy Elliott. U2's Bono takes on the problems of Africa, and Angelina Jolie is the star of the United Nations refugee agency. Read on to see how these big names use their celebrity to help solve big problems.

When Angelina Jolie isn't battling bad guys as Lara Croft, she's helping the world's 35 million refugees as a United Nations goodwill ambassador. (A refugee is a person who flees to another country or region to escape danger.)

Jolie first became interested in the plight of refugees in 1998 while reading the script for the recently released movie Beyond Borders, a film about a woman who helps refugees. Jolie said she was so moved by the script that she wanted to travel to Africa's war-torn Sierra Leone to witness firsthand the refugee crisis there. She called the United Nations and arranged a trip. "I wanted to learn more. I ... felt I should be more responsible about what I was doing with my life," said Jolie.

Jolie said her trip to Africa changed her life. "You see death. You see kids with arms cut off just because they were born in the wrong place," she recalled. "I decided I'd never feel sorry for myself again."

Jolie began her work for the United Nations in 2001. "I wanted to get more people interested. I get really angry at the lack of certain things being done," she said. "You could die tomorrow and you've done a few movies, won some awards--that doesn't mean anything," Jolie said. "But if you've built schools ... or done something to make things better for other people, then ... life is better."

Since then, Jolie has spent two months between each of her films visiting refugee camps around the world. In addition to Sierra Leone, the actress has traveled to Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cambodia, Pakistan, Kosovo, Chechnya, and Ecuador.

The United Nations recently named Jolie its first-ever U.N. Citizen of the World. According to Ruud Lubbers, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, Angelina's work is stellar. "She has helped put the spotlight on a disenfranchised group--refugees--and ... gives a voice to millions of uprooted people across the globe."