Pax's Birth Mother Breaks Her Silence

Pham Thu Dung, the biological mother of Pax Thien Jolie, says she's happy that her child has found a new life with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.

The British newspaper News of the World tracked Dung down in the Vietnam neighborhood she calls home and talked to the 29-year-old about why she gave Pax up for adoption in 2003. Though Dung admits that she's presently incapable of taking care of the three-year-old, she hopes that one day in the future he'll call her "mother" again.

On giving Pax up for adoption:
"I am not his mother anymore because I abandoned him. I saw his face in the newspapers and I wanted to recognize him but I couldn't. He was a stranger to me. I wanted to forget all about him but it hurts so much to see his face and hear about everything that is happening to him. It brings all the pain back to me. My dream is that one day he'll visit me and call me mother. But it's only a dream, I know it's impossible."

On Angelina adopting Pax:
"I want to see my son again and tell him I'm so sorry I had to give him away. I am very happy for him. I hope he has a good life now. He is better off with the movie star because I am not a good mother. I wasn't able to take care of my baby."

On her hopes for the future:
"I realize I am not capable of looking after him. I can't even feed myself properly, let alone a baby as well. I only eat one meal a day. I just hope one day I will see him just to see how he is and looks. I want to know that he's ok and that his new mother loves him."

On her parents signing the adoption papers without her knowledge:
"There is nothing I can do. I can't change what has happened."

On Pax's father leaving her during the pregnancy:
"I kept my baby because I thought my boyfriend would marry me. I wanted to keep the baby and live with him. I trusted him, but he left me."

On taking two fixes of heroin a day:
"I really want to give up. I know drugs might kill me. If I can manage it, I will live a normal life. I really miss my grandmother and my family. I want to sort myself out and go home. But until I can give up drugs, I know I can never go home. I know my father is angry with me and I know the neighbors will laugh at my family. I don't want my son to be ashamed of me when he grows up."

Hours after meeting with News of the World, Dung was picked up by police and escorted to her family's home. A friend who was with her at the time told the paper that her parents have been ordered to keep her there or she faces jail-time.

Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt Donate $100,000 to a clinic in Sudan

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have donated $100,000 to help build the first modern medical facility in Duk County, Sudan, PEOPLE has learned.

The Duk Lost Boys Clinic is the brainchild of John Dau, director of the non-profit organization Direct Change's Sudan Project and himself one of the "Lost Boys" of the Sudan.

His story is featured in the documentary God Grew Tired of Us, which Pitt executive produced.

Pitt and Jolie, who donated the money through their Jolie-Pitt Foundation, first learned of his efforts to build the clinic at the film's Hollywood premiere in January, according to a statement from Direct Change.

The clinic, set to open in the spring and serve more than 150,000 people, is located in the village Dau fled as a boy during Sudan's civil war in the late 1980s.

"Words cannot express my gratitude and the gratitude of the people of Duk County," Dau said in the statement. "Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt demonstrate the American spirit of generosity. Hopefully, their donation will inspire others to join with us to rebuild southern Sudan."

Jolie, 31, has a personal connection to the troubled African nation: As a goodwill ambassador for the United Nation's refugee agency, she recently traveled to Chad, where she met with refugees from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.

Later, in an op-ed piece in The Washington Post, she called upon the international community to intervene to stop the violence there.

Earlier this week, Jolie adopted her fourth child, 3-year-old Pax Thien Jolie, from Vietnam. "We are slowly beginning to build his trust and bond," she tells PEOPLE in its new issue. "But it will feel complete only when we are all together."

Angelina Jolie & Pax on the cover of People & Hello Magazines

Angelina Jolie debuts her new son, Pax Thien Jolie, in Ho Chi Minh City for the first time since his adoption last week. The mother of four was joined in Vietnam by a welcoming committee: big brother Maddox, 5, and little sister Zahara, 2 (10-month-old Shiloh was home with dad), as the 3-year-old now joins the world's most famous multicultural family.

Angelina Decides to be a SAHM who has very good manners

Angelina Jolie has apologized for exposing her new son, Pax Thien Jolie, to the media frenzy that greeted them in Vietnam – and has vowed to focus on her growing family and be a stay-at-home mom.

"I will stay at home to help Pax adjust to his new life," Jolie told Friday's Ho Chi Ming City Law newspaper, according to a translation on the Associated Press. "I have four children and caring for them is the most important thing for me at the moment. I am very proud and happy to be their mother."

Jolie and her new son went through an emotional introduction at Thursday's formal welcoming ceremony, during which the 3-year-old Vietnamese boy started crying when his new mom knelt down to talk to him.

As for all the attention brought to her new son, Jolie tells the newspaper: "Photographs and press coverage will make him upset. I'm very worried about that. I would like to say I'm sorry for bringing this into Pax's life."

Since arriving in Vietnam on Wednesday, Jolie, 31, and her son, Maddox, 5, have been followed by a horde of photographers and reporters.

But in answering those who have questioned the adoption, Jolie says, "Everyone would agree that children need to have a family. I have the ability to help children fulfill that desire. Why should I say no?"

Pax, whose given name before he was adopted was Pham Quang, is the fourth child for the actress and her partner, Brad Pitt. Their brood includes Maddox, who was adopted from Cambodia, Zahara, 2, who was adopted from Ethiopia, and 10-month-old Shiloh, who was born to the couple last year.





Angelina left a thank-you note for Tam Binh orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, thanking them for taking such wonderful care of 3-year-old son Pax Thien Jolie. Angelina’s thank-you note reads:
“Thank you for taking such wonderful care of my son. He has been with you for years. I’m sure he will miss your beautiful caring staff as much as you will miss him. — Angelina Jolie“

Angelina Jolie was "Transformed"

NEWSWEEK: What was your original motivation for working with the UNHCR, for doing these kinds of trips?
Angelina Jolie: I started traveling about seven years ago with film. I would go to places like Cambodia and hear about the many refugees in Thailand and hear about the land mines and hear about the history....I remember sitting up for two days straight and reading everything obsessively. I read about the UNHCR and I realized it was an agency that I didn't know anything about: that they were taking care of 20 million people. ... And I remember realizing that I couldn't understand how I had not known that my whole life.



When did it occur to you that you could do something about this directly? Did people approach you or —
I approached them. I think they thought I was a little crazy.

When was this?
Six years ago. I was very nervous to call the U.N. agency at the time. I [was] considered a rebel in Hollywood. At the time I was also a bit of the wild child. So first I went to Washington [to the UNHCR office] and I sat with everybody there and said, "You know, I know you don't know me. You might have heard things about me… And I don't want to bring negative attention to your agency. If you could just help me, I'll pay my way."

I spent the next year and a half going to, first, two camps in Africa, and then Pakistan and Cambodia. And with no cameras and with no press and had the opportunity to have this great education before I spoke at all…. I was transformed in such an amazing way.


But you do have photographers following you now.
It took me a while to agree to do it. I guess I saw that so many times the picture comes before the knowledge and the substance and I certainly didn't want to do that to myself or the organization. And also, I really just was shy. I was shy about sitting on the floor and talking to a woman and having a camera take a picture because I thought it was making less of my conversation with her. But… I was changed by the faces of the people I saw. "It is something that I am incapable of describing...those faces and that place and those people. And so I think it's just—let the people speak for themselves through the camera. And if I can draw you in a little because I'm familiar, then that's great. Because I know that at the end you're not looking at me, you're looking at them.

I think it's fair to say people start out by looking at you, Angelina.
As long as they end up looking at them, that's the point.


Do you worry about people who say this is celebrity tourism?
I don't know if anybody saying that has spent the last six years of their life going to over 30 camps and really spending time with these people. I can't care. At the end of the day, I'm sure a lot of criticism could keep a lot of people from doing this kind of work…

If someone had a direct criticism of my opinion on the issue, if someone had a direct criticism of the image shown because they think it hurts somebody then I will take that into consideration. But there are a lot of people that simply have an immediate gut reaction and they just don't want to combine artists with foreign policy. And hey, I understand. I get it. I know where you're coming from. And to each his own. … You know, I was more shy when I first went into a camp that other field officers would not want me there.

You were worried that you'd get in the way.
Yeah. That's why I brought no media, it's why I sat back. That's why I just helped them load things. And if I felt that I was ever getting in the way, I wouldn't do it. Because I do care about the opinion of the aid worker, I do care about the opinion of the refugee. I care less about the opinion of the person who's never been in the field but has an opinion about celebrity.

Do you still go with so few people? I can't believe you take no one with you…
I take no one. I [go] by myself on a commercial plane and into the field with my backpack.

You still do that?
Yes, I just did that on my last trip. I met the photographer there.

In the camp?
No, in the airport. We didn't even realize we were on the same flight. We landed at like midnight and got up at like 5 in the morning to catch the WFP [World Food Program] plane [to a town near the camp].

When you got there, what were the people saying about their situation? There are several photographs with this boy tied to a tent pole, and there's also another photograph of a group of women near some tents, and one of them has her ankles chained.
The first time I saw that in the camp [it was] obviously really shocking. They are people who are traumatized by the bombing [by Sudanese government forces attacking villages in Darfur] and by war. The old woman may have had some dementia before. The reality is there are one or two aid workers for every 2,000 refugees. The same with the doctors, the therapists. The basic need there [is] to just try to keep these people safe. To keep the tents up in all the sand storms, try to get the food distributed and basic health-care needs. The [chained] woman started to beat her daughter with anything she could find. She kept hearing voices of the people yelling at her. So she feels constantly under attack. I'm no therapist, so I don't understand all the details. But when I did try to talk to her, she seemed pretty rational. But then she started aggressively telling me that I had to stop them from putting snakes on her. And for the people to stop yelling at her and for the bombs to stop dropping.


And the little boy?
The little boy was a normal 3-year-old [now 7] who disappeared for 48 hours after [his village was bombed]. I can only imagine what he saw. Sure he saw death. And when found, he was found in a state…

As a first reaction you want to remove [the rope]. But the mother, she has four other kids, she's by herself. Therapists visit him, but if [he's] left alone he will disappear or bang himself. I talked to him for like half an hour and just kind of looked at him for a long time before he touched me and there was a little boy in there who was open to a kind sound.… There's a normal little kid right there, but he's got a look of fear. He's nervous to touch. And you can feel that need for safety. The mother unfortunately can't not go work for the other children and can't sit with him all day long and hold him, which is probably what would do some good. But what he needs is probably some serious therapy. [There are] lots of children like him there. Lots of victims of war. [It's a] whole other thing that you usually don't get to address because they have to be so focused on the basic needs of survival. These are the many other casualties of the kind of war that is happening in Darfur.

Do you despair?
Certainly, at times. The first two years I just cried constantly like a woman does.

Oh, like anybody does.
Yes, like anybody does, thank you. I couldn't really talk about the situation without being emotional. And I went through a period of just complete lack of hope. Just feeling like it was way too overwhelming and feeling like I wouldn't be able to make a dent. And then I went through a period of anger that smart, articulate people in power have not been able to answer these issues quickly and clearly and define ways of intervention. And that it just keeps going on. About a year ago, I got a lot of books on international law and I tried to study what was going on—just out of a curiosity about what was this bigger picture. I don't want to have to keep going back to camps, five different times, over the next 30 years of my life, [for situations] that there are no solutions for.


People will look at these pictures of you in Chad and ask, “What can I do?” What should they do?
There are great NGOs like SOS [Austria's SOS Kinderdorp] and there are great NGOs inside and under the U.N. that you could send aid to. It's important for the American people to know that a lot of people believe—I certainly believe—that it has been their outcry and their interest that has motivated our government. I think that the American people have paid attention to Darfur—a really amazing groundswell of people that really care, and are moved and emotional about the things they've seen when it is brought to their attention.

Where would you take the spotlight next?
I want to go back to Cambodia. I would like to understand and see what I can find out about what's happening inside Burma.

You're living in New Orleans right now. Is that just because you like the city or because you wanted to bring attention to New Orleans, too?
A bit of both. Brad was doing a film here and so we were going spend a month here. [We] realized it was a place we liked, we liked the people, I liked the school for the kids. They're very diverse. I liked the other parents. I feel very comfortable with them. We're happy having our children here. Brad is working on rebuilding here.... But for me, just as a mom, I love the other parents and the kids and the schools. I'm starting to work on the education here and the school system here. There's a lot of work to be done.

Scarlett Johansson is the new Angelina

Fresh from her trip to India in support of Oxfam's charity projects, silver screen siren Scarlett Johansson has continued her humanitarian work back home in the States, announcing on Thursday that she is donating 2000 pairs of shoes to help refugees in Sudan. The 22-year-old starlet, who was in Los Angeles to promote her new range of sportswear and shoes, told reporters that she was making the donation as part of the Soles4Souls campaign, which aims to ship a million pairs of new or barely used sandals to the war-torn region. Scarlett joins Jessica Alba and Don Cheadle in supporting the appeal. Scarlett is the latest in a long line of style savvy celebrities including Sienna Miller to design their own range of clothing. Her sportswear range - a collaboration with Reebok - launched on March 1 and is called Scarlett Hearts Reebok. The blonde bombshell hopes the brightly-coloured, feminine clothes will appeal to everyone, regardless of their devotion to fitness. "You can go directly from the gym, slip it on and go meet your friends for coffee," she explained. "It's a mixture of the ultra-feminine and urban lifestyle."