Being trusted to be a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Goodwill Ambassador, Angelina Jolie has done a great job and pull so much attention from others from around the world to know and to care.
Mother of 6 children has journeyed to a village on Ecuador’s border with Colombia to highlight about unaccompanied minors and violence against female refugees.
Returned for the first time in eight years to northern Ecuador, Colombia to see how the situation has changed since she was last in the country eight years ago where thousands of Colombian refugees live. And more than 50,000 Colombian refugees are registered in Ecuador though unofficial estimates put the number at more than 170,000.
On her two days visit, the award winning actress visited the isolated community of Barranca Bermeja in the city of Lago Agrío on Thursday which located in thick jungle on the banks of the San Miguel River. She reunion with a Colombian mother whom she met in 2002, she recalled, “At the time she had a lot of hope for her future, she was recently treated for cancer. She still holds on to hope.”
The actress also spent time to listen and talk to some women at the centre of Women’s Federation of Sucumbios, told about the harrowing tales of beating, incest and other forms of sexual and violence.
In Barrance Bermeja, Jolie spent time with the community and was impressed by their mental strength in coping with the suffering they had endured in Colombia. One of the women she met had lost two children in Colombia’s conflict and she did not want to lose any more of her children.
“It’s been eight years since I was last here and UNHCR‘s presence has grown considerably,” Jolie noted after her arrival in Ecuador. “They are going into the thickest parts of the jungle to reach the refugees, who are living in very remote locations and in desperate conditions.
“I wanted to come back and meet with vulnerable people and focus on violence against women and unaccompanied minors,” Jolie explained. “I am so happy to be able to reconnect with some familiar faces, refugees I had met with during my 2002 trip.”
Single women, girls and Afro-Colombians are among the most vulnerable of the refugee population.
Second day, Jolie had meeting in Shushufindi with President Rafael Correa and other senior government officials.
Enjoy the video of Angelina Jolie reports about her duty to Ecuador.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EINupf2cSno[/youtube]
