Jolie-Pitts Donate $2 Million to Create Ethiopian Health Center

The clinic will be named after the couple's eldest daughter, Zahara, who was adopted from Ethiopia in 2005

By Jovie Baclayon Sep 14, 2008 4:00 PMTags
Angelina Jolie, Brad PittLisa O'Connor/ZUMAPress.com

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt may have newborn twins and four other children to care for, but that doesn't stop them from looking after hundreds of thousands of children in Ethiopia, too.

The Jolie-Pitt Foundation made a $2 million donation to the Global Health Committee on Saturday to create a center for AIDS- and tuberculosis-affected children in Ethiopia. The center will be named after the couple's daughter Zahara, 3, who was adopted from the African nation in 2005.

"It is our hope when Zahara is older, she will take responsibility of the clinic and continue its mission," Pitt said in a statement announcing the donation.

Ethiopia has the seventh highest rate of tuberculosis in the world and an estimated 1.7 million people who are infected with HIV. The new clinic will be modeled after the Maddox Chivan Children's Center in Cambodia, named after the eldest Jolie-Pitt child and established in 2006.

"Our goal is to transfer the success we have had in Cambodia to Ethiopia, where people are needlessly dying of tuberculosis, a curable disease, and HIV/AIDS, a treatable disease," said Jolie in the statement.

Anne Goldfeld, cofounder of the Global Health Committee, said, "The Jolie-Pitt gift will allow us to deliver care and ease the great suffering caused by TB and AIDS with what we know works right now, while we continue scientific discovery to improve prevention and treatment of these diseases in the future."