ANGELINA JOLIE ' WHAT'S GOING ON? CHILD REFUGEES IN TANZANIA ' 1

She plays many roles onscreen, but Angelina Jolie never loses sight of her important role as a concerned global citizen and active UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador. The dedication to her craft that garnered Angelina an Academy Award for her performance in Girl, Interrupted (1999), is reflected in her efforts for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a UN agency that currently assists 20 million refugees in approximately 120 countries.

Angelina's involvement with UNHCR began with a mission to Sierra Leone, a small African country that - like the Democratic Republic of the Congo - has been devastated by years of brutal civil war. Seeing firsthand the enormous challenges that refugees face was a life-altering experience for Angelina, who decided to use her fame to aid their cause. In 2001, she was named a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.

Although only 28, Angelina's acting career has already spanned two decades. Her first feature role was in Lookin' to Get Out (1982), a film co-written and co-produced by her father, the acclaimed actor Jon Voight. Since then, she has received Golden Globe Awards for the television movies George Wallace (1997) and Gia (1998) and her film credits include Hackers (1995), The Bone Collector (1999), Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003).

As a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, Angelina uses her status as a superstar to generate media coverage about the plight of refugees and the conditions under which they live. She has traveled widely to remote refugee camps and receiving centers in countries including Tanzania, Namibia, Cambodia, Pakistan, Thailand, and Ecuador. To further raise awareness, she has released her personal journals for select field visits that can be accessed at USA for UNHCR. For her efforts, Angelina has been honored with the Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program Humanitarian Award.

While hosting What's Going On? Angelina was inspired by the stories of the Fataki brothers, Echa Nyange and Sofia Mocke, all children living at the Lugufu refugee camp in Tanzania.

Tragically, their stories are all too familiar to Angelina, who has met thousands of men, women, and children forced to flee from their homes and struggle to survive as refugees. "You go to these places and you realize what life's really about and what people are really going through," says Angelina. "These people are my heroes."

http://www0.un.org/works/goingon/refugees/angelina_story.html

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