Jolie Accepts U.N. Ambassador Post

By Stephen M. Silverman

08/28/2001 at 01:00 PM EDT

Newly minted goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie wiped tears from her eyes Monday as she described her encounters with Afghan refugees in Pakistan, in particular the children she saw sifting through garbage in order to find food. "What do you do about that? It's really awful," the "Girl, Interrupted" Oscar winner, 26, said in Geneva, Switzerland, after the ceremony in which she was formally appointed ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Jolie had returned from Pakistan only the day before, reports the Associated Press. "It's still very hard to talk about it. It is the worst situation, I think, because there is no end in sight for the needs of these people . . . But I was surprised to sit down with these women and their children and talk with them, and they were so kind and warm and funny and generous and hardworking and grateful for any little help they could get, and they are living in a situation I don't think anybody in this room could survive for more than a few days." Jolie, who started visiting refugee camps earlier this year, has posted the journal she kept during visits to Sierra Leone and Tanzania on the Internet to publicize the work of the UNHCR. U.N. High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers said that he believes that Jolie, who starred in "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," will help bring the issue of refugees to the attention of young people.