Angelina Jolie Opts To Back For Global Education For Poor Children

Angelina Jolie, who was named as the world’s most beautiful woman by People magazine has voiced her interest to use her celebrity status to back a global education campaign

Angelina Jolie, who was named as the world’s most beautiful woman by People magazine has voiced her interest to use her celebrity status to back a global education campaign that will concentrate on educating poorest children.

Appearing in an exclusive interview with NBC, Jolie, 30, urged the US and other first world countries to invest more in education to give children in the developing world a better chance of achieving their potential.

Jolie was speaking from the southern African state of Namibia, where she currently lives with her two adopted children and partner and fellow actor, Brad Pitt. She is expecting Pitt's child in about a month and could give birth in Namibia.

Jolie said that the experience of the two children she adopted in Cambodia and Ethiopia had led her to press for better educational opportunities. Referring to her one-year-old daughter Zahara, she said: "There is no possible way she would have gone to school. She is so smart and so strong. And her potential as a woman one day is great."

"Hopefully, she will be active in her country (Ethiopia) and in her continent when she is older. And because she will have a good education, she will be able to do that much more," Jolie said.

"It has been proven that a basic primary education can completely change the lives of people around the world," said Jolie in a separate teleconference with British chancellor Gordon Brown.

The comments came despite the Pitt-Jolie family's attempts to remain out of the spotlight in Namibia. Numerous paparazzi tried to follow them to Namibia, where the government has been requiring foreign reporters to provide written proof that the Hollywood couple is willing to meet with them.

Last weekend, the government deported at least four foreign journalists, according to local news reports.

"The lady is pregnant and you are hounding her," Namibia's Prime Minister Nahas Angula was quoted as saying in South Africa's Sunday Times.

Pictures of the couple with their newborn are likely to sell for millions of dollars, but according to Sunday Times, Jolie has already agreed to sell People Magazine the pictures in return for a $3.5 million contribution to UNICEF.

--Edited IANS