Brad Pitt visits SA
2005-04-27 10:36
Addis Ababa - Hollywood heartthrob Brad Pitt, star of Troy, Oceans 11, and Fight Club is in South Africa this week after wrapping up a tour of Ethiopia visiting Aids victims, trip organisers said on Wednesday.
The 41-year-old actor spent three days in impoverished Ethiopia touring projects that offer treatment for Aids sufferers and care for Aids orphans as well as micro-credit and girls education schemes, they said.
"We have met some incredible people, incredibly poor people who are fighting back against Aids and extreme poverty with help from Americans," said Jamie Drummond, the executive director of Data, the advocacy group founded by Irish rock star Bono in 2002 that organised the trip.
"We must turn the trickle into a flood of effective aid to help Ethiopians and poor people across Africa help themselves," he said.
A United States study released earlier this month warned that Ethiopia's Aids death toll may double to 1.8 million in three years unless drastic steps are taken to reduce current infection rates and care for those already taken ill.
Data, which stands for Debt, Aids, Trade, Africa, seeks to raise awareness of the combined plights suffered by millions of Africans.
Pitt, who split from with wife, actress Jennifer Aniston, earlier this year and has recently caused a stir with rumours of a romance with screen siren Angelina Jolie, left Ethiopia on Monday and is now in South Africa, Data said.
The two-nation trip is Pitt's second to Africa on behalf of Data and the US-based One campaign, which raises money in the United States for Aids and poverty relief.
AFP
- AFP