LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Angelina Jolie and partner Brad Pitt have donated $2 million (1.12 million pounds) to create a centre, named after their adopted daughter, Zahara, for Ethiopian children affected by AIDS and tuberculosis.
The Global Health Committee said the donation from theJolie-Pitt Foundation would establish a centre in the Ethiopiancapital Addis Ababa to treat AIDS orphans and develop a programto treat drug-resistant tuberculosis.
The Oscar-winning Jolie adopted a baby girl she calledZahara, now 3 years old, from Ethiopia in July 2005 and the newclinic will be named after her.
"It is our hope that when Zahara is older, she will takeresponsibility for the clinic and continue its mission," Pittsaid in a statement.
Pitt and Jolie now have six children -- twins Knox Leon andVivienne Marcheline born in July, Shiloh, 2, and adoptedchildren Zahara, Pax from Vietnam and Maddox from Cambodia.
The Jolie-Pitt Foundation helped set up a similar clinic in2006 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia that is named after Maddox.
"Our goal is to transfer the success we have had inCambodia to Ethiopia where people are needlessly dying oftuberculosis, a curable disease, and HIV/AIDS, a treatabledisease," Jolie said.
Ethiopia has the seventh-highest rate of tuberculosisdisease in the world and an estimated 1.7 million people in thecountry are infected with HIV, according to the World HealthOrganization. UNICEF estimates that more than 900,000 childrenhave been orphaned by AIDS in Ethiopia.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant, Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
