How UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie helps Sudanese refugees in Chad


"UNHCR's workers on the ground in eastern Chad have been fighting a valiant battle to come to the aid of hundreds of thousands of refugees in one of the most hostile environments in which the organization has ever had to work.

The refugees – most of them women, children and elderly – have fled fighting in Sudan's Darfur region and have arrived in the desert in the remote border region of eastern Chad. Refugees began arriving in 2003 and new waves of tens of thousands fled in December 2003 and January 2004. Hundreds more continued to arrive each week.

In June 2004, I visited Sudanese refugees in Chad. I helped aid workers to organize a convoy to move refugees from the volatile border to a safe area, where they received attention to their most urgent health, shelter, nutrition and clothing needs. I also participated in the monitoring of children's nutrition status in a refugee camp."