ANGELINA JOLIE URGES AID TO REFUGEES
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[ March 9th 2004 ]

Actress Angelina Jolie, a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), has urged individuals and corporations around the world to donate money to help Sudanese refugees in Chad. Ms. Jolie, a United States national, has personally donated $50,000 to water projects in Chad, where an estimated 110,000 Sudanese refugees have gathered after escaping civil conflict in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region, according to UNHCR.

UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said today that Ms. Jolie has called on other individuals to help finance the projects, which supply clean water to the arid, desert areas where the refugees have taken temporary shelter. Mr. Redmond said Ms. Jolie is the first person “to make a major private donation” to UNHCR’s emergency appeal for Chad. The United States Government has provided $5 million of the $7.5 million received so far. The UNHCR has said it needs more than $20 million this year to help the refugees and internally displaced people in Chad and Darfur.