Unit
Four
What is a Goodwill
Ambassador?
What do a Hollywood
actress, a Congolese basketball star, an American pop singer and a former US boxing champion all have in common? Actress Angelina Jolie, basketball star Dikembe
Mutumbo, singer Clay Aiken and one-time boxing champion Muhammed Ali are among the celebrities serving as UN
Goodwill Ambassadors. Goodwill Ambassadors are notable people who use their
fame and talents to call attention to some of the world's most dire problems. As
representatives of the UN and its agencies, Goodwill Ambassadors travel to
some of the most troubled regions of the world to
spotlight human suffering resulting from war or disease. Calling the
world's attention to these bitter realities can bring aid from governments
and individual donors alike to take corrective action.
In her role as UNHCR*
Goodwill Ambassador, actress Angelina Jolie
has traveled to refugee camps in many
areas of the world including the Balkans, Cambodia, Ecuador, Kenya, Namibia,
Pakistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka. When asked why she
wanted to work on behalf of refugees, Ms Jolie
said, "I started to travel and realized there was so much I was unaware
of. There were many things I hadn't been taught in school and daily global
events I was not hearing about in the news. So I wanted to understand.
I believe in what the
UN has always stood for—equality and the protection of human rights for all
people. So I read many books. When I read about the 20 million people under
the care of UNHCR, I wanted to understand how, in this day and age,
that so many people could be displaced."
During her camp visits, Jolie talks personally with those who live in the
camps. Of her talks with refugees at a camp in Ecuador, Jolie
said, "What was really shocking was that every individual person you meet
will tell you that their immediate family was affected. Somebody's child was
killed, somebody's husband. Someone was beaten."
Jolie learned that half of the world's
35 million refugees are children. The actress, herself the mother of adopted,
orphaned children, has talked to numerous orphaned children
in refugee camps. A personal contribution she made to UNHCR operations
in Kenya
made possible the building of a school for girls. Written on the plaque
of the future school site
are the words, "Dedicated to the emancipation of the refugee girls
of Kakuma and women's rights and freedom to
education." An official of UNHCR Kofi
Mable said, "With this help, and the
construction of this school, future generations of girls will be
saved."
Saving children and inspiring young
people everywhere to take action on behalf of the
world's less fortunate is the aim of the Goodwill Ambassadors. Dikembe Mutombo, NBA basketball
player for the "Philadelphia
76-er's" is also 'Youth Emissary' of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Mutombo has
made world-wide public service television broadcasts encouraging young people
"to do sports, not drugs", and also
promoting AIDS-prevention and online literacy. Mutombo has also made a personal contribution to build a
300-bed hospital in his native country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The multilingual Mutombo is able to get his message
out in ten languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and five African
dialects - in the spirit of true internationalism of the Goodwill
Ambassadors.
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