Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have donated over $340,000 to an aid initiative in Somalia through their Jolie-Pitt Foundation.
Mohamed Dahir, a spokesperson from Humanitarian Initiative Just Relief Aid – the beneficiary of the donation – says the money will allow the charity increase services that serve 300 women and children every day in Mogadishu’s Badbaado camp.
The organization envisions the end of human suffering in The Horn of Africa through the creation of an environment where people are self-reliant, living in a sustainable and prosperous community with the assurance of a victimless future. They are committed to providing the most vulnerable in the community with the tools to access safe and clean water, to develop and maintain healthy living conditions, to initiate and create income generating opportunities, and develop skills through the dissemination of information, education and training to ensure their future self-reliance.
According to the charity: "Two decades has seen Somalia at the heart of one of the longest running humanitarian crisis in the world. The intense destabilization created by the 1991 collapse of the government, has left its people vulnerable, displaced and at the forefront of an international independent and governmental battle for aid intervention.
“The Somalia of today is home to the largest population per capita of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the world.
"Today almost 30 percent, over a quarter of a million people, have been displaced and nearly half the country’s population is malnourished and totally dependent on external food aid.
“HIJRA has remained among a very small number of NGOs still operating and providing essential lifesaving services in Southern Somalia, Banadir and The Afgooya Corridor; working to fill the gaps in aid created by the forced withdrawal of agencies in 2009.
“In response to this withdraw and the increased violence, our program focus has been shifted from developmental projects to emergency intervention.
“Together with our international partners and various UN agencies, HIJRA works to set up systems of shared information and coordinated response for the displaced to provide immediate emergency intervention in Water and Sanitation, Livelihoods and Health.
“HIJRA works to ensure the supply of clean water, emergence shelter (plastic sheeting) and non-food items (NFIs), sanitation facilities and supplies. HIJRA also supplies lifesaving kits to the incoming IDPs.”
To find out more about the charity, click here.
