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Movie star Angelina Jolie has asked the organisation she named after her adopted Cambodian son to manage a conservation project in the north west of the country, an official said Tuesday.
The project, which promotes wildlife conservation and development in northwestern Cambodia, had been run by two non-government organizations -- San Francisco-based WildAid and Cambodian Vision in Development.
But Jolie decided not to renew their contract when it came up last January, and instead gave the job this year to the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Project (MJP), said Stephan Bognar, executive director of the new group.
Jolie's group is named for her five-year-old son Maddox, who was adopted from Cambodia in 2002. The program operates in the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Samlot in northwestern Cambodia.
As one of the last holdouts of the genocidal regime, the region is one of the most heavily mined areas in the country.
During the next five years, Jolie plans to invest more than 1.5 million dollars to build schools and health care centers, provide training for health workers, and construct public toilets and roads, Bognar said.
"We are doing a very big project in Samlot," he said.
"Angelina is not changing her attitude about investing in Cambodia. The opposite, she is increasing her commitment and increasing her financial commitment to the country," Bognar said.
Jolie has campaigned for environmental reform in the impoverished country, which has rewarded her work with citizenship, and last year gave her a Cambodian passport.
The actress fell in love with Cambodia while shooting "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" at the famed Angkor Wat temple in 2001, and owns a home in Samlot district of northwestern Battambang province.
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AFPEntertainment-Cambodia-US-film-people-Jolie
AFP 311133 GMT 10 06
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