Angelina Jolie’s charity work is considered by the press to be genuine and sincere, and there have never been any rumors about financial transparency.
“We cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that there are millions of people living miserable lives. I truly want to help,” star Angelina Jolie shared on the day she was officially appointed as a goodwill ambassador. of the United Nations (UN).
The story of famous actress Jolie has made the whole world admire over the past 20 years and it is no coincidence that she was appointed by the United Nations as a goodwill ambassador.
In fact, the story of Angelina doing charity is a process of struggle, escaping from the quagmire of her past to rise up and truly love the fates at the bottom of society.
A life of addiction
“I feel that I am so lucky and should do something to make this world less miserable,” Angelina Jolie once said these words when she was dubbed the “charity queen” of Hollywood.
Indeed, Jolie herself was born into a “prosperous” family where her parents were both famous actors. Living in a well-off and well-off environment, Jolie started acting at the age of 7. At the age of 18, when many young actors were still struggling to make a living, she received contracts from large films such as “Cyborg 2”.
However, Jolie’s life was not rosy when her parents had to separate. Even though she lived with her father, her filming trips away from home left her lacking family affection and gradually falling into addiction.
Since the age of 14, Jolie has lived with her boyfriend. She didn’t even hesitate to take hot photos or try almost every kind of stimulant drug when she was under 20 years old.
Even when the movie “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” was produced and made Jolie a world A-list star, the filmmakers had to force her to take drug tests every day and request detoxification.
To complete the film as required, Jolie did her best to give up drugs, and perhaps one of the factors that helped her forget her life of addiction was charity.
Reality and Sincerity
“When I went to Cambodia to film Tomb Raider in 2001, I realized I didn’t know much. This is a country where I can’t go wherever I want because many places are still full of mines. Then I learned that the US had not signed a treaty. to ban mines. I started to go and read more. I read documents about the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Nearly 20 million people are under the care of this organization. I thought, how can this happen? Is that okay?”, Jolie shared when remembering the time when she started paying attention to charity activities while filming and quitting drugs.
The more she read, the more Jolie realized she had forgotten people in life less fortunate than herself. She realized that 1/6 of the world’s population is living on an income of less than 1 USD/day. About 1.1 billion people are out of school globally and more than 100 million children worldwide are out of school.
It was these tragic lives that motivated Jolie to successfully quit drugs even after filming was completed, and at the same time led her to the path of charity, opening a new page for a star who was once an addict.
In the same year 2001, when she witnessed the tragic scenes of miserable people in Cambodia, Jolie decided to do something she had never thought of before: adopt an orphan.
A mother’s love inspired Jolie to give up her glamorous, luxurious image of partying and start traveling around the world to visit refugee camps, becoming a representative and protector. for the weak.
Not only did actress Jolie become a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations, she also became an ambassador for many organizations and charities around the world such as UNICEF, ONE…
Jolie and her husband even founded the Jolie-Pitt Foundation to continue volunteering activities. Almost all of Jolie’s charitable activities are considered sincere and substantive, with no complaints about financial ambiguity.
Even though she is busy with many big projects, Jolie still travels constantly like a shuttle to distant lands. In 2002, the actress went to Tham Hin refugee camp in Thailand; Ecuador, Kosov; Visit Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. In 2003, she went to Tanzania and Sri Lanka. In 2005, she went to Pakistan to meet Afghan refugees…
The United Nations said that since becoming a goodwill ambassador, Jolie has carried out nearly 50 missions in hot spots around the world, an extremely respectable number for an actress who switched to this field.
With that positivity, Jolie was honored by many organizations as “Queen of Charity” and was the first person in the world to receive the “International Citizen” award from the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA). Awarded.
Charity is not just talk
For Angelina Jolie, volunteering is not simply about being a representative, going to speaking conferences or adopting more children. She always believes that she must personally go to difficult places to best feel and understand the charity activities she is doing. Jolie herself wants to understand how to make her volunteer activities more effective and more substantive, not just empty words or giving out money aimlessly.
“When I was in the refugee camp, my spirit was more comfortable than when I was in any other place because I was surrounded by truth, the families of poor people. I felt like I was truly human. In these places In that country, people didn’t know who I was. I felt useful because I was willing to spend a whole day with them in poor conditions. I could help give a voice to people who couldn’t speak for themselves. speak for yourself,” actress Jolie shared.
Indeed, Jolie’s volunteer activities were not interrupted even when her marriage with husband Brad Pitt collapsed. The Hollywood female star continues to organize many social activities as the UN special envoy for refugees. Jolie was even appointed as a section editor on migration, conflict and human rights issues for the international version of Time magazine.
During covid-19 pandemic, the charity queen is even more concerned about the poor and refugees falling into difficult situations when the world economy stagnates.
“The consequences of this Covid-19 pandemic can cause many negative impacts on young children in poor countries, such as child marriage, child labor, sexual crimes… “That’s very scary and we have to find a solution, we have to take action,” Angelina Jolie said.
