Angelina Jolie Lifts Spirits at SOS Village Santo, Haiti 

February 9, 2010: Today UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, Angelina Jolie, visited SOS Children’s Village in Port-au-Prince.  Jolie came to see exactly how SOS was responding to the devastating earthquake that has created tens of thousands of unaccompanied children. Taking care of 200 children without parental care before the earthquake, the SOS Village will now swell to at least 500 children with thousands more assisted in nearby Port-au-Prince communities.

Ms. Jolie came to Haiti just four weeks after the disaster in an effort to draw attention to the plight of the children.

During her stay, Jolie visited two SOS families who have each taken in four children, all brothers and sisters. They were among the 33 children about to be illegally removed from the country who are now at the center of an international debate as to the fate of children in the face of natural disasters. The Haitian government has asked SOS to care for these children, given its thirty years of work in Haiti with orphaned and abandoned children. As is customary in its work across the world, SOS will diligently investigate each case to determine whether family reunification is possible and appropriate, or whether short or long-term care with SOS is a further option.

Ms. Jolie also showed great interest in learning about another aspect of SOS Children's Villages' emergency relief program in Haiti. SOS will be providing some 30,000 children with food, medical supplies and treatment, as well as trauma therapy, through its SOS community centers committed to family strengthening. Some 5,000 children are already benefiting from these efforts, which are strongly supported by SOS Caribbean staff, and equipment provided by the Red Cross and the Red Crescent. SOS Children's Villages plans a large-scale reconstruction program over the next 10 years.

Angelina Jolie has been an outspoken and loyal supporter of SOS Children's Villages for years. She has visited the SOS trauma therapy center within a Darfur refugee camp in Chad, and an SOS Children's Village in Amman, Jordan. The Jolie/Pitt Foundation has made multiple donations to SOS children at risk both internationally and in SOS Villages in the US.

You too can help support SOS Children's Villages efforts in Haiti and around the world. Please make a donation or sponsor a child today.

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About SOS Children's Villages

For 60 years, SOS Children's Villages has been dedicated to the long-term care and prevention of orphaned and abandoned children. Through Villages, Family Strengthening Programs, and other initiatives, SOS Children's Villages impacts the lives of over 1 million people each year. In 2009, SOS Children's Villages received the Save the World Award. SOS has also received numerous other honors including the Mother Teresa Gold Medal, the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, and the Vietnam Friendship Medal.