Angelina Jolie Visits Syria and Iraq

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Angelina Jolie actress and Good Will Ambassador for the United Nations High Command for Refugees, stopped in on Syria and Iraq in a surprise visit August 28.

“I {am here} to help draw attention to this humanitarian crisis and to urge governments to increase their support for UNHCR and its partners,” she said.

Jolie met some 1200 Iraqis who were stranded on the border between Iraq and Syria. Her appeal is to garner more support for the U.N. and its efforts to gain more support for those affected by the Iraq war.

Angelina Jolie wanted to know first hand about the problems and issues of more than four million people who have been uprooted by the war in Iraq. Jolie stressed this was a non-political visit.

Jolie walked among the tents in an area in Iraq that had no running water or electricity and no respite from the desert heat. She spent time with sick children and the elderly and inspected a site where the UNHCR is building a school for children who are among the 1,300 refugees according to UNHCR.

She spoke with refugees who have fled kidnapping and murder attempts and are struggling to make ends meet in Damascus, Syria.  Jolie listened to tales of Iraqi teenage boys and young men who are unable to work or attend school and what the future holds for these people. Jolie also spoke to a young Iraqi man who had been tortured, set on fire and left for dead in Iraq.

Angelina Jolie also spoke to mothers, some who have young children living in a rented house with 13 people and not being able to buy diapers. She offered encouragement to one young man who lost his sight after being shot in the head in Baghdad, which destroyed his dream of becoming a computer engineer.

Angelina Jolie told the man that many people in history have made a difference despite the fact they are blind.