Photo courtesy International Rescue Committee
Humanitarian and Hollywood actor Angelina reached Pakistan on Tuesday to visit victims of this year’s floods, provide them support, and raise international awareness of the devastating impact of climate change.
Non-governmental organization International Rescue Committee (IRC), which arranged the trip, thanked her for the visit in a posting on Twitter. “We’re so grateful to Angelina Jolie for visiting IRC’s response to the devastating floods in Pakistan—and for helping us bring attention to the effects of the climate crisis,” it said, and shared some of the information she had been provided during her interactions with flood-hit communities.
Shortly after arriving in Pakistan, Jolie traveled to Dadu, Sindh, where she conducted an aerial surveillance of the inundated areas and met with, and spoke directly to, families affected by floods. According to IRC, women in Ibrahim Chandio village of Dadu told Jolie of the “horrors” they were suffering. “Simple needs like food, water, medical attention are not being met,” it said.
Angelina Jolie speaks with an elderly woman who’s lost her home in Dadu. Photo courtesy International Rescue Committee
Sharing a picture of Jolie with flood victims, it added: “This elderly woman, like many others, had lost her home to the damage and is living in a makeshift encampment that doesn’t provide protection from the weather. Amidst these devastating conditions, she wanted someone to hear her story.”
In an earlier statement, the IRC had said Jolie had arrived to witness and gain an understanding of the on-ground situation in Pakistan, as well as to hear directly from people about their needs and steps that could be taken to prevent such suffering in future.
According to local media, in addition to visiting Dadu, Jolie also visited Johi and its surrounding areas.
This isn’t the first time Jolie has visited Pakistan; she had previously the country in 2005 and 2010 to meet victims of an earthquake and floods, respectively.
This year’s “unprecedented” floods have impacted 33 million people, with record rainfall leaving a third of the country underwater. Sindh is the worst-hit, though no province has been spared the devastation, with damages to infrastructure, crops and livestock—in addition to mounting casualties—continuing to climb in south Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa as waters start to gradually recede.