Angelina Jolie's 1m Iraq donation

Jun 26, 2008, 10:10 GMT

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt arriving for the gala screening of US director Clint Eastwood\'s film \'The Exchange\' running in competition at the 61st edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France. Celebrity couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have donated one million dollars to help children affected by the Iraq war, their charitable foundation announced 25 June 2008. The Jolie-Pitt Foundation gave 500,000 dollars to three groups in Iraq to provide aid for some 5,700 children, according to the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, which is co-chaired by Jolie. EPA/GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are donating $1 million to help children caught up in the Iraq conflict.

The couple have pledged the generous amount through their Jolie-Pitt Foundation which will be shared by four organisations, who work to provide education and support to children who have lost parents, homes and schooling opportunities in Iraq as well as children of US soldiers who are in long deployment, injured or dead.

United Nations ambassador Angelina - who has visited Iraq twice in the past year to see the devastation caused by the war - said: "These educational support programmes for children of conflict are the best way to help them heal."

Brad added: "We hope to encourage others to give to these great organisations."

Admiral Frank Gallo, the national director of the Armed Services YMCA, a charity who will receive some of the money, said: "The contribution from the Jolie-Pitt Foundation is a major boost to our efforts to serve the children of our brave members of the United States Armed Services who are engaged in our current conflict."

The Jolie-Pitt Foundation has already handed similar amounts to humanitarian groups Medecins Sans Frontieres and Global Action for Children, as well as charities helping people in the crisis-hit African region of Darfur.

The couple - who are expecting twins - have three adopted children, Cambodian-born Maddox, six, four-year-old Pax from Vietnam, three-year-old Ethiopian-born Zahara as well as two-year-old biological daughter Shiloh.