Children sit in Charsadda- Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province. Despite the need, SOS is one of the only active NGOs in thie region

September 8, 2010: Walking through tents built on what was once a camp for Afghan refugees in Pakistan’s northwest, actress Angelina Jolie told Reuters on Tuesday she was “very moved” by the devastation brought by this summer’s terrible floods.

Dressed in a black shawl, Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency, spoke with homeless, traumatized women and children. Later she told journalists, “It’s an extraordinarily complex situation. These are very, very long, extended situations that need our constant support for a very, very long time.”

Pakistan’s latest natural disaster killed more than 1,700 people and displaced more than 18 million, according to Reuters/Alertnet. Estimates of damage to agriculture and infrastructure run to almost $43 billion.”

SOS Children’s Villages, on the ground in Pakistan for more than three decades, is taking action to help such vulnerable children.

Jolie Is Long-term Supporter and Visitor to SOS Children’s Villages

Boy in front of his destroyed house in Chassada

The Hollywood star is a long-term supporter of SOS Children’s Villages.  In 2007, Jolie visited an SOS Children's Villages trauma and therapy center for Darfur refugees in Chad.  A few months later, SOS Children's Villages was one of three agencies working in Chad who shared a one million dollar donation from the Jolie/Pitt foundation.  Two years later, Jolie visited the SOS Children's Village - Amman, in Jordan, and has most recently visited the SOS Children’s Village - Santo, Haiti, twice following the devastating January 2010 earthquakes. During her June 2010 stay in an SOS home in Santo, she commented, “I like to visit and support SOS Children’s Villages because I have seen that SOS children are growing up in a safe and loving environment.”

On her visit to Pakistan this week, Jolie said she would urge worldwide governments and individuals to come to Pakistan’s aid to help ease the human suffering. The UN says that Pakistan’s disaster requires hundreds of millions of dollars more than the $310 million it has received to date toward its initial appeal of $460 million. The money is needed to provide basic necessities -- food, medicine, clean water and shelter -- to affected families and children.

Following Angelina’s Lead

Boy in a makeshift tent camp in Chassada

With so many natural disasters afflicting children around the world, it’s easy to feel “disaster fatigue” -- that it’s too hard to help everyone in need. Humanitarians like Angelina Jolie who have seen up close the human toll of such disasters, and the good that organizations like SOS can do for children one at a time, don’t get discouraged.

Angelina knows that SOS is a lifeline to individual children and families during tragic times like these in Pakistan. Keeping with her spirit, help SOS help Pakistan’s children. A little bit goes such a long way for a child who has lost everything and for whom a food package means life over death.  Donate now to support SOS Children's Villages around the world.

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