Angelina Jolie
Adoptions, donations and the power of celebrity
Aside from her well-known status as the second half of Brangelina, Jolie is known for her many humanitarian roles, including a five-year position as a Goodwill Ambassador for the U.N. Refugee Agency, which assists around 20 million refugees in over 100 countries. It’s this work that has Angie listed among the top celebrity philanthropists, in some places above even Bono and Sting.
Money is no object for Angelina, and she and Brad have donated millions to various charities. But unlike many other stars looking for media attention by giving cash, she has no qualms about donating her time, and a lot of it (and paying her own costs on missions).
The Academy Award winner isn’t yet 30, but has traveled the world with the U.N., including stops in Sudan, Cambodia (where she adopted son Maddox), Ethiopia (where she adopted daughter Zahara), Ecuador and Namibia (where she gave birth to her first biological child Shiloh-Nouvel) and now she has her fourth child Pax. It all started with a trip to civil-war devastated Sierra Leone in 2001, and culminated in her appointment to a position advocating for refugee protection on more than half of the world’s continents. Angelina is one celebrity using her status to focus media attention toward something other than herself.
Angelina’s personal journals from several field visits can be viewed on the U.N. website, as well as photos and videos of her involvement with the agency, allowing celeb-watching fans access to her life and hopefully inspiring them to make changes in their own (that might be stretching it, but if it’s cool for people like Angelina to care, why not the people who idolize them too?)
She’s even begun to help children entering the U.S. by supporting a bill to give unaccompanied children lawyers and guardians to help them through immigration court proceedings. Although many are eligible for asylum or humanitarian status, the government doesn’t give them the legal assistance they need to apply.
Jolie has received various awards including being named the first UNCA Citizen of the World by the U.N. Correspondents Association and the Global Humanitarian Action Award from the U.N. Association of the USA and the Business Council for the United Nations.
While Angelina is not exactly the greenest celebrity in environmental terms, efforts to improve the quality of life for people in developing countries can have a direct impact on reducing environmental degradation in those areas. She’s not directly an advocate for energy conservation per se, and she’s been seen driving SUVs when in the U.S., but her focus on helping others more than makes up for it.
