Jolie: I have a lot to be happy about

Ann Curry • Profile

NAMIBIA - In Namibia, at the edge of southern Africa’s vast Kalihari desert, a very pregnant Angelina Jolie emerged from a private vacation with Brad Pitt and her two adopted children to advocate for 100 million kids across the planet who can't go to school — either because of war, lack of opportunity, or crushing poverty.

Angelina Jolie: People often look at people in situations like this and they think that they are not exactly like us and that they look at them a little differently—that they live in a shanty town. But these people are very smart and they take care of their families.

Ann Curry, Dateline co-anchor:  They love their children.

Jolie: They love their children.

Curry:  And they want them to go to school…

Jolie:  And they very much want them to go to school.

According to studies by the Global Campaign for Education, every extra year of school for children in developing countries increases their wage earning potential and decreases their likelihood of getting sick.

Jolie: You could teach them young about hygiene, you could teach them young about protecting themselves from AIDS, you could teach them young about how to take care of their kids, you could teach them young about vaccinations. If every kid was in school every year 700,000 less people would get AIDS.

Curry: So education can be not just life-changing but life-saving.

Jolie: Absolutely.

Curry: Why do you care so much?

Jolie: Just because I know my kids, I think of Zahara, she is from a country where 6 million kids don’t go to school every year -- just in her country alone. It's just really tough. Her mother died of AIDS and so they wouldn’t have had any funds to send her to school.

Curry: So she would have been the exact child you are trying to help.

Jolie: And I know her I know how smart she is and I know what a great lady she is going to be. I know that there are so many girls out there like her that aren’t going to get that chance just because we haven’t figure it out in the world to figure out that education should be free...

We visited the 30-year-old Angelina in Namibia’s Mondesa township. Where we sat down in a small two room school house and discussed education.  

Curry: This is a moral challenge, in your view.

Jolie: Yeah.

Curry: About our stepping up for those in need.

Jolie: It’s moral, and it’s also—it’s also smart, you know? All these poor countries, not just Africa, but Asia as well and all poor areas.  It’s gonna be places where our kids are either gonna be visiting and working with, and it’s gonna be a different world. Or it’s gonna be worse than it is now.

Angelina has been a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations on behalf of refugees for the last five years. That work brings her to some of the world’s most dangerous places, like Darfur, in Africa, where the U.S. says genocide is occurring.

Curry: Despite having everything going for you, you have chosen the hard road to travel to all of these tough places, to adopt the way you do.  And that’s why people are fascinated with you. You could be in Malibu, living in a beautiful house—

Jolie: See, to me, that’s the tough road. (Laughter)

Curry: Why is that the tough road? 

Jolie: I love... adopting my children was the greatest blessing to me.  They are the funniest people I’ve ever met.  And they’re the greatest joy in my life.  And I feel so blessed that I’ve been allowed to adopt them and bring them into my home.  So that was no generous thing of mine.

Curry: But you’re traveling to Darfur, you’re going to Pakistan to see earthquake victims. 

Jolie: When I’ve gone to refugee camps or I’ve gone to places to meet earthquake victims, it is certainly not some big sacrifice of mine. There’s nothing poor and horrible and sad about these people. They’ve inspired me.

As a result, Angelina has been spending less time on the sound stages of Hollywood. 

Curry: Have you ever thought about leaving the movies and making it full time, this work in trying to change the world?

Jolie: Well, I don’t want to be responsible for changing the world. I’ve been just traveling with my family for the last few months and that has been more important than making a film.

Curry: But movies?

Jolie: Well, for now. It is my job. It is what makes it possible for me to be able to fund the programs I care about.

Like focusing attention on the 40 million children in Africa, most of them girls, who don’t get the opportunity to go to school. It is clear Angelina loves working with children and told us she and Brad are thrilled to be adding another child to the family.

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