Angelina Jolie during a meeting with Ecuadorian
Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino at Foreing Ministry Headquarters in
Quito, Ecuador on April 22, 2012.
Credit: Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry/DPA/ABACAPRESS.COM
UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie visits Ecuador Angelina Jolie: On Behalf of All of Ecuador, Thank You!
Carolina Loza Leon
Angelina Jolie’s humanitarian work is no surprise to many. What is a surprise is the media coverage her recent visit as a UN envoy received and the positive impact it has had.
For a change, Brangelina's visit to the Galapagos Islands was not the focus of media attention, but rather, Jolie's visit to the Ecuador-Colombian border grabbed headlines.
After touring the Galapagos with her family, Angelina stayed on the mainland for her third visit with UNHCR to the Northern Ecuador area. And, her visit had an immediate impact on the country's refugees.
For background, most refugees living in Ecuador, who have fled conflict from Columbia, live in extreme poverty in urban areas. Ecuador has made some strides in recent years to create more favorable conditions, but there is still a long road ahead.
Yet, immediately upon Jolie's visit to the country, the Ecuadorian Foreign Affairs office began working a mile minute, and put a priority on refugee issue in Ecuador.
Having a figure like Jolie at the forefront of the effort to improve the situation of Ecuadorian refugees has brought a powerful, media-friendly ally to fight an acute issue that both the international community and Ecuadorian Society tend to ignore. Only those working in the human rights field know what over 54,500 officially recognized refugees (there may be many more) go through on a daily basis in Ecuador.
According to UNHCR, Ecuador has the largest refugee population in Latin America.
Jolie's constant presence holds the country's agencies more accountable and puts pressure on local authorities to prioritize this issue.
This represents her first trip as a Special envoy for the refugee agency, thus formally taking part in a more diplomatic role, engaging in advocacy, and dealing with key actors. Jolie knows very well what she’s doing and the impact she can have, in media and political affairs.
Jolie’s first two visits to Ecuador were low key, reported at most by one or two local magazines. Let’s just hope Jolie’s visit to the country become routine.
An issue which has been highly neglected by media when it should be a priority has found in Jolie, its strongest partner.
For a change, Brangelina's visit to the Galapagos Islands was not the focus of media attention, but rather, Jolie's visit to the Ecuador-Colombian border grabbed headlines.
After touring the Galapagos with her family, Angelina stayed on the mainland for her third visit with UNHCR to the Northern Ecuador area. And, her visit had an immediate impact on the country's refugees.
For background, most refugees living in Ecuador, who have fled conflict from Columbia, live in extreme poverty in urban areas. Ecuador has made some strides in recent years to create more favorable conditions, but there is still a long road ahead.
Yet, immediately upon Jolie's visit to the country, the Ecuadorian Foreign Affairs office began working a mile minute, and put a priority on refugee issue in Ecuador.
Having a figure like Jolie at the forefront of the effort to improve the situation of Ecuadorian refugees has brought a powerful, media-friendly ally to fight an acute issue that both the international community and Ecuadorian Society tend to ignore. Only those working in the human rights field know what over 54,500 officially recognized refugees (there may be many more) go through on a daily basis in Ecuador.
According to UNHCR, Ecuador has the largest refugee population in Latin America.
Jolie's constant presence holds the country's agencies more accountable and puts pressure on local authorities to prioritize this issue.
This represents her first trip as a Special envoy for the refugee agency, thus formally taking part in a more diplomatic role, engaging in advocacy, and dealing with key actors. Jolie knows very well what she’s doing and the impact she can have, in media and political affairs.
Jolie’s first two visits to Ecuador were low key, reported at most by one or two local magazines. Let’s just hope Jolie’s visit to the country become routine.
An issue which has been highly neglected by media when it should be a priority has found in Jolie, its strongest partner.
Ricardo Patiño Aroca
Angelina Jolie llegando a la Cancilleria http://yfrog.com/kg1srigmj
Jolie greeted upon arrival at the Foreign Ministry by Minister Ricardo Patino, right.
Ricardo Patiño Aroca @RicardoPatinoEC
Ricardo Patiño Aroca
@RicardoPatinoEC
Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores, Comercio e Integración del Ecuador Quito, Ecuador http://www.mmrree.gob.ec/
Ricardo Patiño Aroca
La señora Angelina Jolie es una persona con una impresionante sensibilidad por la gente que vive situaciones de refugio
Angelina Jolie da seguimiento riguroso a las condiciones en que viven
familias refugiadas en muchos países y aboga por su mejoramiento
Angelina Jolie podría dedicar su tiempo a disfrutar de su riqueza y su
fama, pero usa esa fama para estos fines humanitarios. Mis respetos
Enviaré fotos de esta honrosa visita en las próximas horas.
Ricardo Patiño Aroca
Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores, Comercio e Integración del Ecuador Quito, Ecuador http://www.mmrree.gob.ec/
Ya en el despacho ministerial, Javier Creach, Angelina Jolie, Ricardo Patiño y Joseph Merkx http://yfrog.com/oczmrlqj
Cancilleria
Canciller @RicardoPatinoEC y Angelina Jolie promueven campaña a favor de los refugiados en Ecuador http://pic.twitter.com/LwBwaOSh
Angelina Jolie visits Ecuador on first mission as UNHCR Special Envoy
News Stories, 23 April 2012
© UNHCR/J.Tanner
UNHCR
Special Envoy Angelina Jolie meets Colombian refugees in a riverside
community that she visited in northern Ecuador's Sucumbios province.
She said that "as the 30th anniversary of the 1984 Cartagena Declaration nears, it is time to celebrate the resilience of the displaced people in the region and renew our commitment to laws and policies that offer them protection, safety and a chance for a dignified life." The Cartagena Declaration broadened the refugee definition used in Latin America and offered a new approach to refugee protection and solutions in the region.
Jolie's call came at the weekend during her first field visit as Special Envoy of High Commissioner António Guterres. She was in Ecuador to assess the situation in urban and rural areas for refugees from Colombia, where almost 50 years of conflict have also left some 4 million people internally displaced.
Ecuador hosts 56,000 refugees and 21,000 asylum-seekers and receives 1,300 new applications for protection each month from people fleeing neighbouring Colombia's continuing violence. Many live in the remote and poor northern areas of the country close to the border.
Jolie's two-day visit began on Saturday in Lago Agrio, capital of Sucumbios province in the north of the country. She visited the oil town's San Valentin neighbourhood, where she met young Colombian refugees and Ecuadoreans who were part of a youth group supported by UNHCR. They told her about their tough lives in an area where the young are often targets for recruitment by armed groups and traffickers.
"I found these people impressive and was really moved by their determination to improve their community and take it into their own hands," Jolie said. She discussed the situation of the youth of the area with Lago Agrio's Mayor Yofre Poma, who runs a series of school programmes aimed at instilling a sense of responsibility in young people and easing the integration of refugees, who comprise 13 per cent of the town's population.
"Through these programmes, the mayor is keeping the culture of tolerance for vulnerable people who have suffered so much violence," Jolie said.
The Special Envoy also visited on Sunday two remote riverside refugee communities in the border area north of Lago Agrio. She returned after two years to the hamlet of Barranca Bermeja on the San Miguel River and met members of the local women's association, which receives UNHCR support.
The refugees spoke about the need to improve access, telling Jolie that under current government regulations they must travel to Lago Agrio in person to renew their refugee documentation. Ín the absence of a public bus service and good road, this can cost a month's salary – a huge burden.
Refugees in the border areas received their first official identity documents in a registration drive between 2008 and 2010. These have proved critical in regularizing the stay of refugees and helping them access their rights. But they now face challenges renewing their documents because the government has cut back on the number and operations of mobile registration teams.
Jolie also visited the Providencia community of 24 Afro-Colombian refugee families, some two hours west of Barranca Bermeja by boat. The settlement was established in 1994 by Colombian refugees, but received no outside help until 2008, when UNHCR turned up.
"It is extraordinary that these people were on their own for 14 years," the Special Envoy said. Since making contact with UNHCR, the refugees have been registered and a primary school has been built, but many challenges remain.
"We really feel the isolation; it is really tough," said Plinio, the community president, who was also concerned about the requirement to travel to Lago Agrio to renew refugee documents. Providencia can only be reached by hiring a boat and it is a two-hour journey from the nearest road.
Despite the hardships in Providencia, Jolie found the people inspiring. "There is this amazing teacher who is so devoted to his students that he has left Lago Agrio to live in this remote place and teach the refugees, who for the first time have access to education, who have a future," Jolie said.
The envoy said she was grateful to this teacher and the many other people who have given assistance to these vulnerable families. "Without finding safety in Ecuador, they would most likely not be alive," she said. "Nobody wants to be a refugee, to have to leave their home. Nobody wants to be living on borrowed land and to have to be begging for a visa every year and not to be able to know what their life or their children´s life is going to be, or whether they can access any jobs or get medical help."
She stressed that it was "very important that UNHCR and the government come here and give assistance. But it is also important that we help the local people understand what it is to be a refugee, what they've come from, what they've survived, what their intentions are. And their intentions are simply that they want to be safe and to have a decent life for their family."
Also on Sunday, the Special Envoy met Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño (and senior government officials) to discuss the protection situation for refugees in Ecuador on behalf of UNHCR. She urged the Minister to ensure his government maintains Ecuador’s long history of protecting refugees and that people in need of protection can access their rights.
She said UNHCR would recognize Ecuador's contribution to refugee protection in a new awareness campaign entitled, "Gracias Ecuador" ("Thanks Ecuador"). Jolie was appointed as Special Envoy of High Commissioner António Guterres earlier this month.
By Ariane Rummery in Lago Agrio, Colombia
Angelina Jolie Takes Break from Galápagos for UN Work
After jetting to the Galápagos Islands last week after she and Brad Pitt announced their wedding engagement, Angelina Jolie
resumed her humanitarian work, this time in her new role as a Special
Envoy for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
Over the weekend, while their six children remained in the Galápagos, Jolie (whose former UNHCR title, for more than a decade, was goodwill ambassador) spent time with refugees by the San Miguel River, in Ecuador.
"Her work does go substantially beyond what we would typically see as being the normal role of a goodwill ambassador," Geneva-based UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards told reporters late last week, noting that Special Envoys are unpaid positions.
"I don't think you need a rocket scientist to see the benefits that she is bringing in terms of the attention that she is getting for the plight of the world's displaced," Edwards added.
In Ecuador, Jolie's activities included meeting with farmers as well as Colombian refugees.
While in the Galápagos, Jolie, Pitt and their children – Maddox, 10, Pax, 8, Zahara, 7, Shiloh, 5, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 3 – spent their time exploring different islands on the 90-foot Reina Silvia, as well as relaxing at their luxury oceanside villa.
"The kids were very excited every day. They saw many wild animals, including turtles, iguanas and tropic birds," a source tells PEOPLE. "The boat tours were all very relaxing and fun for them. Brad and Angelina looked very happy together. It seemed to be a great family vacation."
Angelina Jolie in the Ecuadorian jungle, led by Plinio, the President of Providencia community, on April 22, 2012
J Tanner/UNHCR/Getty
A handout picture provided by UNHCR shows United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Special Envoy Angelina Jolie (2-L) meeting with Plinio, in Providencia community, Ecuador (AAP)
Acnur/Unhcr Américas
