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Angelina and Zahara Photo by: INF People.com

Angelina Jolie Takes Zahara to Ethiopia

It turns out that Angelina Jolie's recent goodwill mission in Kenya was also a homecoming for one member of the Jolie-Pitt family.

While Jolie, 34, and Brad Pitt, 45, were "on a trip to Kenya with their children, Angelina stopped in Dabaab Refugee Camp, and also flew to Ethiopia with Zahara and Shiloh for two days," a close family friend tells PEOPLE.


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Ethiopia - 'Desert Flower' starring Liya Kebede opens on September 24

Source: Waris Dirie Foundation

Having gained wide success in the world of fashion and modeling, Liya Kebede of Ethiopia, has transitioned successfully into the world of acting, with the starring role in the independent film, Desert Flower. An adaptation of Waris Dirie’s bestselling autobiography, the story recounts Dirie’s rise from childhood in the Somali desert to the catwalks of the international fashion business.

In 2004, Kebede captured Hollywood’s attention and has since appeared in films including The Good Shepherd with Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie, directed by Robert De Niro, and Andrew Niccols’ Lord of War with Nicolas Cage and Bridget Moynahan. A native of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Kebede has graced the covers of dozens of magazines including Vogue (American, Italian, Japanese & Spanish), V, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and Time’s Style & Design issue.

In 2003 Liya became the first woman of color to represent the Estée Lauder brand. Off screen, Kebede is a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador with the World Health Organization, working to raise awareness of the difficulties women and children face in the developing world. In her efforts to make a difference, she founded The Liya Kebede Foundation which aims to improve the health and well-being of mothers and children around the world.

In July 2007, Kebede launched Lemlem, a children’s clothing line hand woven in Ethiopia and sold online as well as in select boutiques in New York, Los Angeles, and Europe. She is currently working on the second collection. Lemlem, which means “to bloom” or “to flourish” in Amharic, embodies African traditions and culture with the hopes to positively impact its economy. Liya resides in New York with her husband, Kassy and their children, Suhul & Raee.

UPDATE: In English

Click here to watch the Trailer from IMDB

COMMENTARY: Ethiopia's New Climate of Fear

Monday, 18 May 2009

Published in The Guardian

By David Dadge

Vienna - The European Union, the United States, and other major donors will pump about $2.5 billion into Ethiopia this year, a sum that does not even begin to include the cost of medicines, famine relief, and countless other services provided by non-profit groups in one of the world's most impoverished countries.

That help is needed, because Ethiopians are prone to malnutrition, disease, and natural calamity. Its burgeoning population far outstrips the country's ability to feed itself. So desperate is Ethiopia that celebrity causes - from Bob Geldoff's Live Aid famine-relief concerts to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's adoption of orphaned babies - supplement what donors cannot possibly provide.

But for all this generosity, an authoritarian government rules Ethiopia with virtual impunity. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, in power for 18 years, has crushed the opposition. His ruling party dominates public institutions. Worse still, in a vast and predominantly rural country, the prime minister's underlings control broadcasting and maintain a choke-hold on other media.

Four years ago this month, Zenawi's Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Party (EPRDF) suffered its worst loss at the polls since the former guerrilla overthrew a ruthless, Soviet-backed regime in 1991. Rather than accept its losses, the EPRDF-run government responded with a brutal crackdown, claiming outright victory and accusing the opposition of trying to stage an insurrection.

Security forces attacked peaceful protesters, jailed opposition leaders, sent thousands of their supporters to gruesome detention camps, and accused independent journalists of treason - a crime punishable by death. Some journalists and politicians sought asylum in other countries. During several months of unrest, roughly 200 people were killed. It was a disgraceful snub for donor nations that had invested time and capital in supporting Ethiopia's democratic transition.

Many of the journalists and opposition figures were eventually released or granted clemency, but there has been no letup to the torment. In late April 2009, security forces arrested 40 opposition figures, accusing them of trying to topple the government.
Meanwhile, the authorities continue their assault on independent media through capricious licensing rules, interrogations, and, on occasion, revoking the permits of reporters for international broadcasters like the Voice of America. Leading journalists have been assaulted, the culprits never found. "There is only fear, not freedom, of expression in Ethiopia," says one leading journalist.

Ethiopia's journalists are not entirely innocent. Some newspapers have stoked the country's ethnic and regional animosities, and can be wildly inaccurate in their reporting. Yet badgering or jailing journalists is no way to resolve what could be handled through a voluntary media council or independent ombudsman. Furthermore, the government effort to portray independent journalists as vicious enemies unfairly condemns the many Ethiopian reporters and editors who take their responsibilities seriously.
Zenawi has largely escaped sanction from his Western allies, in part because the erudite ex-Marxist had a friendly relationship with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and cooperated closely with the Bush administration in counter-terrorism efforts in the Horn of Africa.

There has not been total silence. Donald Payne, a leading member of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Ana Gomes, a member of the European Parliament from Portugal and head of the EU's observation team in the 2005 elections, have sought to tie non-humanitarian aid more closely to Ethiopia's conduct on press freedom and other human rights. Britain and some other European governments responded to the post-election crackdown by temporarily withholding aid.

But Ethiopia poses a dilemma for anyone who cares about human rights and democracy. Cutting off aid could have calamitous humanitarian consequences for the nation's 80 million people. It could also destabilize a fragile region, sparking fresh wars with neighboring Somalia and Eritrea.

Nevertheless, there are ways to pressure Zenawi:

• Donors should deny Ethiopian ministers a seat at diplomatic tables, such as the coveted spot Zenawi got at the G-20 summit in London as head of the New Partnership for Africa's Development;

• While the Development Assistance Group, created by the EU and other principal donors to coordinate aid projects in Ethiopia, has improved the efficiency of donor contributions, a vigorous monitoring component is needed to ensure that international resources do not support policies that are anathema to human rights values;

• As a leading donor, the EU wields considerable power in Ethiopia and should be more willing to use it. The EU should aggressively enforce the Cotonou Agreement, which requires Ethiopia and other nations that receive European assistance to respect "human rights, democratic principles, and the rule of law." Cotonou is due for revision in 2010, so now is the time to develop enforcement mechanisms that establish clear penalties for failing to uphold human rights and freedom of the press.

• The EU and the US should wield more of their clout at the World Bank and other international organizations to link development grants to progress on press freedom and human rights.

The aid that Ethiopia receives from its friends may be a small price to pay to keep Africa's second largest country from descending into chaos. But Ethiopia's people deserve more from their government. Press freedom is a start, not just because it is a fundamental human right, but also because vigorous media are essential to keeping societies alert to the kinds of crises that are all too common in Ethiopia.

David Dadge is Director of the Vienna-based International Press Institute, the global network for free media. http://www.freemedia.at

Angelina Jolie planning a trip to Ethiopia

Angelina Jolie has said she and Brad Pitt are planning a trip to oldest daughter Zahara’s native Ethiopia to show their children about the realities of life in the developing world.

Angelina, with Brad’s support, adopted Zahara in 2005 and are funding an AIDS centre in the country through their charity, the Jolie-Pitt Foundation. Over the last few years, the couple’s family has grown in size to six children and they have travelled extensive - but mostly just within Europe and around the US.


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Jolie-Pitt Foundation Establishes HIV/AIDS Clinic in Ethiopia

By Brian Orloff and Mary Green

People

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's Jolie-Pitt Foundation has made a $2 million donation to the Global Health Committee to establish a center to aid children affected by tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia.

The center will be modeled after the Cambodian Health Committee's Maddox Chivan Children's Center in Cambodia, where children receive medical, education and social services.

"Our goal is to transfer the success we have had in Cambodia to Ethiopia where people are needlessly dying of tuberculosis, a curable disease, and HIV/AIDS, a treatable disease," Jolie said in a statement.

As in Cambodia, where the couple named the center after their eldest child, the Ethiopian branch will be named for Zahara, 3, who was adopted from Ethiopia.

"It is our hope when Zahara is older she will take responsibility of the clinic and continue its mission," Pitt said in a statement.

The clinic will also focus on tuberculosis care. The disease causes approximately 2 million deaths yearly, and is the largest cause of death worldwide for children and adults with AIDS.

"The fact that poor people continue to die in our world today of TB, a curable disease, because of lack of access to drugs and care is unacceptable," Pitt said.

The Jolie-Pitt foundation was established in Sept. 2006, when the couple donated $1 million to the Global Action for Children organization and $1 million to Doctors Without Borders.