Jolie visits Haiti with UN

2010-02-10 11:21

Angelina Jolie arrives at a Doctors Without Borders hospital in the Delmas neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Javier Galeano, AP)

Port-Au-Prince - Angelina Jolie began two days of meetings with Haiti earthquake victims on Tuesday in her role as a goodwill ambassador for the UN refugee agency.

The actor, representing the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, met with UN officials in Port-au-Prince and visited an SOS Villages camp for orphans outside the capital, where she was cheered by Haitians yelling, "Angie! Angie!".

That same camp took care of 33 Haitian children after a US-based Baptist group was arrested at the Dominican border trying to take the kids out of the country. It wasn't known if Jolie spoke with any of the children, and journalists were kept at a distance throughout her visit.

The American missionaries have been accused of trying to take the children out of Haiti without proper documentation. The group said it was heading to a Dominican orphanage following Haiti's quake and had only good intentions.

Jolie also toured a Doctors Without Borders hospital in a Port-au-Prince suburb, waving to onlookers. She and husband Brad Pitt have contributed $1m to Doctors Without Borders for its emergency medical operations in Haiti.

Jolie was meeting with Haitians employed in quake debris clean-up through a joint UN-US Agency for International Development programme before spending the night at a Brazilian military camp outside the city.

On Wednesday, Jolie planned to visit the southern city of Jacmel, a camp for people made homeless by the quake, as well as a Save the Children relief supply centre before returning to Port-au-Prince and leaving for the neighbouring Dominican Republic.

Jolie has previously visited Iraq, Thailand, Pakistan and other countries with Unhcr.

- AP

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