Brad Pitt Returns from Africa

WASHINGTON – Brad Pitt visited South Africa and Ethiopia early November on a listening and learning mission to find out about AIDS, poverty and hope in Africa.

“I spent a wonderful week traveling this beautiful continent, listening to the people and learning about the AIDS crisis, the extreme poverty in which people live and how people in America can help by joining The ONE Campaign to fight global aids and poverty,” Pitt said on Tuesday at the beginning of World AIDS week.

Pitt traveled through South Africa and Ethiopia November 2-9, visiting orphan care centers and health clinics where he received a warm and gracious welcome, and in a remote village in Ethiopia where they had never heard of the United States, much less an actor from Hollywood. While in Johannesburg, he also met with Nelson Mandela and Jendayi Frazier, the U.S. ambassador to South Africa. The trip was organized on behalf of ONE, a new effort to rally Americans to fight global AIDS and poverty.

“Brad met some of the people with AIDS who are being kept alive thanks to American help – and also with some of the people who are in need of help. He played soccer with AIDS orphans and talked to some of the heroes working to get life-saving medications into the poorest places. It was a remarkable and eye-opening trip for all of us,” said Jamie Drummond, executive director of DATA, which organized the trip. DATA is the advocacy group founded by Bono of U2 to help fight AIDS, un-payable debts and unfair trade rules.

More information: An exclusive slideshow of Brad in Africa is available online at ONE.org.