She understands the suffering of others and tries to change it for the better. For about 20 years now, Angelina Jolie has been doing everything in her power to help refugees, fight poverty and preserve nature. All of this, and she never forgets how to be a loving and supportive mother.
We admire all the good this famous actress has done for the world and wanted to tell you a little bit about her story. Relax and get started!
1. It all began with Lara Croft.
In 2000, Angelina Jolie went to Cambodia to shoot the film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. The country was in a humanitarian crisis at that time, and that left a huge mark on the young actress. She started conducting her own research about troubled places around the world and their refugees. Later, she visited more than 30 countries, providing humanitarian help to people who were in need and donating money. Angelina was even named a UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) Goodwill Ambassador.
2. She loves nature just as much as she loves humanity.
She adopted her first child from a Cambodian orphanage. But she still wanted to keep connections for him with his heritage, so she purchased a house in this country. It turned out that the property was next to the Samlout National Park, that became infiltrated with poachers who became a real threat to endangered species. Angelina decided to buy the 60,000 hectares of this park and created a beautiful wildlife reservation. It was named The Maddox Jolie Project, that today is called the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation.
The Cambodian government couldn’t let her actions go unnoticed and awarded her with Cambodian citizenship.
3. She comes to the aid of refugees.
Ever since Angelina joined UNHCR in 2001, she has been continuously working for all these years to help people who are the most in need. One of these groups is refugees. She herself goes to their camps in different countries, helps improve their living conditions, and provides them with humanitarian aid and developmental support. She also helps build schools and health facilities for both displaced refugees and returnees.
For example, in 2010 Angelina donated $75,000 and opened a primary school for girls in Tangi, Afghanistan. She was worried that young girls did not have opportunities to get a proper basic education, since there were no facilities for it and this is not the only school she opened in this country.
4. She supports not just one, but many different foundations.
Jolie tirelessly fights for opportunities to make the lives of all people better in different spheres of their lives. It’s not only refugees that get her attention, but she also focuses on raising money and awareness to help fight cancer and strives toward eliminating extreme poverty. Together with other famous people, Angelina supports vulnerable children and orphans by providing them with essential services like health, educational, and psycho-social support.
Altogether, Jolie took part in around 29 different foundations and organizations aimed at providing peace, education, and health support.
5. She always fights for women’s rights.
She not only helps displaced people, she also wants to take care of women who’ve suffered from sexual violence in war zones. She finds it important to eradicate this, because this harassment destroys women’s lives, their families, and their communities. In her effort to protect women, she launched the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, aimed at investigating sexual violence and taking action against it.
6. She reminds women to take care of their health.
The actress lost her mother and aunt to breast cancer. Sadly, Angelina also had a high chance of developing this illness. She made a decision and underwent a preventive double mastectomy. She didn’t want her children to experience the pain of losing their mother due to an illness, like she had to. After this, Jolie openly spoke out, discussing her surgery and experience and tried to encourage women to get tested in time.
7. She doesn’t hesitate to donate to charity, no matter how much they need.
In 2008, Angelina was expecting twins, and everyone was so excited about it. Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt were born in August that year, and various magazines tried to get the exclusive, first-hand photos of her children. People and Hello! decided to team up and bought the photos for $14 million! This money got directly donated to the Jolie-Pitt Foundation.
8. She does a lot for disaster relief.
In 2011, a deadly tornado destroyed around 8,000 homes and 400 businesses in Missouri. Angelina, together with her ex-husband, Brad Pitt donated $500,000 from the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation to help rebuild the city. Before this, in 2010, Haiti experienced a devastating earthquake that took the lives of many people and the couple donated $1 million to provide aid for its victims.
9. She continues to inspire her children.
Her daughter Zahara Jolie-Pitt designed her own jewelry collection together with the famous jeweler Robert Procop — The Zahara Collection. Just like her mother would do, Zahara transferred all the money raised from the collection to the Los Angeles-based House of Ruth Shelters. This non-profit helps to provide transitional housing for battered women and children.
10. She gets inspired by them too.
She does everything to be the best mom ever for her beloved children. Since her son Maddox is amazed by planes, she learned how to actually fly one! She wanted to be like a Superman for him in this role.
What do you admire the most about Angelina Jolie? Have you ever participated in any charity foundations? Let’s discuss this in the comment section!
Source: https://brightside.me
