Kenya will always be a dear part of Angelina Jolie’s heart.
It is where she’s done a significant amount of charity work, and the 42-year-old has no desire to slow down.
Angelina traveled to the African country to see, firsthand, the progress of the initiative against sexual violence that she helped launch.
In her role as an activist and special envoy to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, she met with adolescent sexual assault survivors in the city of Nairobi.
Despite her years of experience, it’s clear the conditions are still just as heart-wrenching.
UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie marked World Refugee Day 2017 visiting adolescent refugee girls in Nairobi.
Meeting with one brave survivor, Angelina explained the girl was the “same age as my eldest son, who is already a mother to a child born of rape.”
The star flew out of LA with her six children including eldest 15-year-old Maddox, Pax, 13, Zahara, 11, Shiloh, 10, and 8-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne, a day before Father’s Day.
Her ex-husband Brad Pitt got to spend some quality time with several of them before they left with their mum.
Brad and Angelina share their six children.
During her humanitarian adventures, Ange stopped by the International Peace Support Training Centre, where she checked out the training session for military and police personnel involved in U.N. and African peacekeeping missions.
Addressing those in attendance, she said, “The reality is that women and girls, as well as men and boys, can still be raped with near-total impunity in conflict zones around the world.”
“The reality is that a peacekeeper may be the first person one of those traumatized girls encounters after their abuse. As peacekeepers you need to be absolutely clear what to do, because that girl will be frightened, especially of a man with a gun.”
“Over half of all refugees and displaced people worldwide are women and children. How we treat them is a measure of our humanity as nations.”
Questioning, she asked, “How do you approach her, will affect her whether she is able to begin to recover or if more damage will be done.”
Angelina’s Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, which was founded five years ago, deals with these issues.
People report that the program has “trained over 17,000 military and police personnel on sexual violence issues, and the PSVI team of experts has been deployed more than eight times.”
Speaking of the program, Angelina confessed, “While this training is clearly only a beginning, it is the only way that we will begin to address the problems: working nation by nation to raise standards and increase effectiveness.”
Before concluding, “On behalf of victims of sexual violence I want to plead with all of you to take this issue seriously and personally, to use your position and your influence to spread this message within your armed forces and on all the missions on which you serve.”
It was Angelina Jolie’s third visit to Kenya.
Australia for UNHCR has launched an appeal to provide protection to the record number of refugee children forced to flee conflict alone – without their parents or family.
To find out how you can help and donate head to unrefugees.org.au/childrenalone or by calling 1300 361 288.
