The most inspirational photoS of Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie: a warrior with an unshakeable spirit
After visiting war-torn Cambodia in 2000, actress Angelina Jolie took on a life-changing role by becoming an ardent advocate for refugees and displaced people. Upon her return from the Asian country, where she had gone to shoot the film Tomb Raider, Jolie contacted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), an agency whose main purpose is to safeguard rights and the welfare of refugees. Thus began a relationship that has made Jolie an international activist for the protection of refugees.
As soon as she Jolie was appointed a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in 2001, she began visiting refugee camps around the world. In 2002, the impact of Cambodia would bring Jolie a new role to play. That year the actress became a mother for the first time by adopting Maddox, a boy from an orphanage in Phnom Penh. Then, in 2003, in Battambang province, Jolie bought a traditional house with more than 60,000 hectares of land and turned the area into a nature reserve that she named after her son: Maddox Jolie Project.
This project, which would later become known as the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Project, was expanded to include multiple purposes such as agriculture, education, healthcare, infrastructure, professional rural planning, and microcredit programs. In appreciation of her conservation efforts, King Norodom Sihamoni granted Jolie Cambodian citizenship.
In 2003, Jolie published her book Notes from My Travels, which chronicles her missions on the ground in Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Pakistan, Cambodia, and Ecuador. In the book, which is applauded for its author's honesty and humility, Jolie recounts: “When I was on the plane from Paris, an African man in a smart blue suit asked me with a smile if he was a journalist. I replied, "No, I'm just an American who wants to learn about Africa!"
In 2005, Jolie and actor Brad Pitt, to whom she was married for several years, adopted a girl from Ethiopia, Zahara. Shocked by the difficult situation in the girl's country of birth, Jolie and Pitt decided to create the Zahara Center, which takes care of the needs of children infected with HIV and tuberculosis.
After more than ten years of impressive work with UNHCR, Commissioner Antonio Guterres appointed Jolie as Special Envoy in 2012. From their respective positions, both join their efforts to find solutions for the massive displacement of the population. In addition to field missions and diplomatic representation, Jolie has donated millions of dollars to UNHCR, funds that have been used to build schools and bring to life other initiatives to improve the lives of the displaced.
She has been a strong supporter of increasing humanitarian aid and development support in Syria and neighboring countries.
Jolie's devotion to humanitarian causes has been recognized worldwide. In 2003, she was the first person to be awarded the Citizen of the World Award from the United Nations Correspondents Association. In 2005, she received the World Humanitarian Award for her work with refugees from the United Nations Association of the United States and the Business Council for the United Nations. In 2013, the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Jolie with the 2013 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her philanthropic efforts as a passionate human rights advocate.
Angelina Jolie is an inspiring woman. She is brave and sensitive. She is the matriarch of a multicultural brood that includes Maddox, Zahara, Shiloh, Pax, Knox, and Vivienne. She is not afraid to see the world for what it really is, nor is she afraid to continue fighting for those in need.
Her own words define her. On World Refugee Day 2009, in a moving speech, Jolie spoke of her inspiration: “The refugees I have met and spent time with have profoundly changed my life. An 8-year-old girl who saved her brother's life taught me what it is to be brave. The pregnant woman in Pakistan taught me what it is to be a mother. And the paralyzed young man who had been shot in the back showed me, with his huge smile, what the strength of an unshakable spirit is ”.
