Angelina Jolie On Refugees: ‘How We Treat Them Is A Measure Of Our Humanity’

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ambassador Angelina Jolie kicked off her humanitarian work in Africa by visiting refugee girls who were victims of sexual violence. Brad Pitt’s ex also voiced out a strong message for everyone on World Refugee Day.

On Tuesday, Jolie visited a Kenyan home that houses the 20 or so refugee girls from Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Rwanda. According to a post on the UNHCR website, all of the young girls in the Heshima Kenya Safe House were separated from their families and almost all of them have fled their countries due to “extreme violence.”

The refugee girls were said to be victims of sexual and gender-based violence in their communities. Most of them were either pregnant or have just given birth to babies conceived through rape.

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This is the third time that Jolie has visited Kenya, but she is still as fervent as ever in her call for everyone to help refugees. “Over half of all refugees and displaced people worldwide are women and children,” she said during her stop in Nairobi, Kenya. “How we treat them is a measure of our humanity as nations.”

“On World Refugee Day my only ask is that people consider the pain and suffering of young girls like these,” Jolie said. “Not only have they had to flee extreme or persecution, lost everything and witnessed the death of family members, but they have also had to face so much abuse and intolerance and hardship.”

The “By the Sea” actress also stopped by the International Peace Support Training Centre the same day and delivered a speech on peacemaking efforts in front of a crowd. “The role of sexual violence is compounded when it is carried out by someone in uniform who has taken an oath to protect, so it is a responsibility of those who wear uniform to take the lead now by correcting from within,” Jolie said.

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“On behalf of victims of sexual violence, I want to plead with all of you to take this issue seriously and personally, to use your position and your influence to spread this message with your armed forces and on all the missions on which you serve,” the actress addressed the center’s staff.