Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt Donate $2 million to Namibian Wildlife Sanctuary
by Marivic Cabural
Superstar couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt once again shared their blessings last Christmas by donating $2 million dollars to Naankuse Lodge and Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia. The money was donated in the name of the couple’s daughter Shiloh through the Jolie-Pitt Foundation. Angelina Jolie gave birth to Shiloh in 2006 at Swakopmund, Namibia.
The Tourist actress and Academy award winner Jolie said, "We want her to be very involved and grow up with the understanding of her country of birth."
The Brangelina Family spent Christmas at the Naankuse Lodge and helped in caring and feeding wildlife like baboons and foxes, they also watch the release of a leopard in the wilderness and visited the San Bushman School at the farm.
According to Jolie the founders of the Naankuse Sanctuary, Rudie and Marlice van Vuuren are old friends . The actress said, "We continue to be impressed by their hard work and dedication to the people and conservation of the land and wildlife of Namibia.”
Meanwhile, the founders of the Naankuse Sanctuary were very happy to receive the money from the Jolie-Pitt Foundation and Sanctuary’s finance head Dara Barrett told AP that the community of San Bushman and its’ surrounding areas will be the primary beneficiary of the Jolie-Pitt donation.
Barrett said, "Some of the donated funds will be used in the running of a clinic which provides free medical care to the community of bushmen, including the treatment of malnutrition, tuberculosis and HIV.”
The Jolie-Pitt Foundation has been dedicated in eradicating extreme rural poverty, protecting natural resources and conserving wildlife. It also provides aid to people in more or less than 60 countries whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusions from health care or victims of natural calamities.
Angelina Jolie’s awareness about the humanitarian crises worldwide started when she filmed Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in Cambodia. She began herfield missions around the world and met with refugees. In 2001, the UNHCR recognized her as Goodwill Ambassador.