Angelina Jolie's Impressive Emotional Intelligence And Humanitarian Work

Few celebs can boast of being a top Hollywood actress and a humanitarian worker at the same time, and Jolie is one of them. The star has held the post of Special Envoy with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) since 2012 and was previously a Goodwill Ambassador for the same organization from 2001 to 2012.

Speaking to Vogue about her humanitarian work, she said, “I found myself a student at their feet. I have learned more from [refugees] about family, resilience, dignity and survival than I can express.”

Jolie can definitely afford to just live a life of luxury and comfort instead of going on field missions to crisis zones, so why does she do it?

She told Vogue, “I see all people as equal. I see the abuse and suffering and I cannot stand by. Around the world, people are fleeing gas attacks, rape, female genital mutilation, beatings, persecution, murder. They do not flee to improve their lives. They flee because they cannot survive otherwise. What I really want is to see an end to what forces people out of their homelands.”

Jolie recalled a time when she started crying as she listened to refugees’ stories during a mission in Sierra Leone. She said, “There was an amazing grandmother there, looking after her orphaned grandkids, who pulled me up and told me not to cry but to help. That has always stayed with me.”

Another thing that influences her humanitarian work is motherhood. It was during a mission in Cambodia in 2001 that she met a little boy in an orphanage, who she would later adopt and name Maddox.

“Cambodia was the country that made me aware of refugees,” she said. “It made me engage in foreign affairs in a way I never had, and join UNHCR. Above all, it made me a mom.”

The actress went so far as to build a home in Cambodia and set up the headquarters for her foundation there. And she’s not slowing down even during the pandemic – she has several projects lined up with UNHCR, BBC World Service, and Amnesty International.

“I went into lockdown thinking it would be a good time to learn to cook. Never happened,” she said.