Angelina Jolie in Nairobi to celebrate World Refugee Day
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Special Envoy Angelina Jolie marked World Refugee Day on Tuesday by visiting adolescent refugee girls in Nairobi.
The American actress met around 200 refugee girls living in the Heshima Kenya Safe House and participating in an empowerment project.
The actress was named as an ambassador for UNHCR in 2001.
On Tuesday, she visited girls who fled violence or persecution in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), South Sudan, Somalia, Burundi, and Rwanda.
PAIN AND SUFFERING
“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. On World Refugee day my only ask is that people consider the pain and suffering of young girls like these,” said Jolie in a statement.
It was Angelina Jolie’s third visit to Kenya, home to nearly 491,000 refugees from neighbouring Somalia, South Sudan, DRC, Burundi and other countries in the region.
Most of the 67,000 urban refugees in Kenya survive on handouts from UNHCR and other humanitarian organizations.
Among the refugees in Kenya are 101,713 from South Sudan.
The Special Envoy said: “Kenya hosts close to half a million refugees and we at UNHCR are very grateful to the people and government of Kenya for that.”