NEW YORK (AP) -- Angelina Jolie
says her work as a humanitarian ambassador for the United Nations
at first left her tearful and overwhelmed.
"The first two years I just cried constantly," the actress told
Newsweek. "I couldn't really talk about the situation without being
emotional. And I went through a period of just complete lack of
hope."
During her February visit to the Oure Cassoni camp on the border
between Darfur and Chad she came across a disturbed 7-year-old boy
whose family had tied him to a pole to stop him wandering away or
banging himself. The boy had spent 48 hours hiding in the bush
after his village was bombed.
"I talked to him for like half an hour and just kind of looked at
him for a long time before he touched me," Jolie told the magazine,
"and there was a little boy in there who was open to a kind
sound."
Jolie has visited camps in Africa, Pakistan and Cambodia as part of
her work as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees. She said she travels unaccompanied on
commercial flights, and doesn't care about people who describe what
she does as celebrity tourism.
"I don't know if anybody saying that has spent the last six years
of their life going to over 30 camps and really spending time with
these people," said Jolie, who wants to return to
Cambodia.