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Just like an angel
‘Everyone is in agreement of what needs to be done and that is very encouraging,’ said Angelina Jolie, blaming the US invasion and the Iraq war for causing diversion of funds from refugee projects
Angelina Jolie may not be the greatest actress in Hollywood but she certainly is the sexiest with her flawless complexion and luminous eyes. Without any make-up and wearing black trousers and a long, black, full-sleeved knitwear shirt, the 29-year-old actress recently held a news conference in Islamabad at the end of her four-day visit to Pakistan as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) Goodwill Ambassador.
Millions of Afghans have sought refuge in Pakistan over the past quarter century, something which Ms Jolie thanked the government and its people for at the beginning of her address. This was Jolie’s second trip to Pakistan after three years. Eager to help the Afghan refugees, she spoke with devotion and commitment for the cause she has committed herself to.
Angelina Jolie first visited Pakistan in August 2001 and offered her services to the UNHCR. On August 27, 2001, she was named goodwill ambassador, taking upon herself the responsibility of advocating for the protection of refugees worldwide. For over four years, she has travelled with UNHCR to remote and desolate regions, meeting refugees and field workers in over 15 countries and regions.
During her stay in Pakistan, she spent four days touring refugee camps, wandering through the mud alleys of the Katcha Garhi Camp on the outskirts of Peshawar and meeting Afghan children. During her visit to the brick kilns on the outskirts of Islamabad, she came across more Afghan families and became emotional as she watched children as young as six or seven pounding mud into moulds. “It was really one of the worst things that I have ever seen. There were kids younger than my son’s age,” she said, referring to her adopted son, Maddox. “It is very, very difficult as a mother to see children having to work,” she said. “But I understand that it’s very hard for the parents who need their children to work in order to eat.”
She also saw off a convoy of Afghans returning home the following day near Attock and before that she spoke with many of them. She said that she found a deep desire among them to return to their homes even when faced with economic hardships. She narrated the story of a woman who was about to get on the truck with a small baby and didn’t have a husband, crying but desperate to go back to her home in Afghanistan: ‘I have no water, I have no school, I have no house, nothing. But I have God’. “I hope she will be okay because I don’t know how she is going to survive,” said Jolie.
As part of her visit, the Hollywood actress earlier met Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and President Pervez Musharraf to discuss the issue that seems so close to her heart. “Everyone is in agreement of what needs to be done and that is very encouraging,” she said, blaming the US invasion and the Iraq war for causing diversion of funds from refugee projects, and urging the world community to work for fast development in Afghanistan to pave the way for the return of the three million Afghan refugees still living in Pakistan. “The burden on Pakistan and its people, which has lasted 25 years, is very large and they have not been given the support that they should have received.”
She offered to raise funds for Afghan refugees in Pakistan and agreed to participate in an international conference to be held in Islamabad.
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