Angelina Jolie 'The Buzzy Bee'

Actress, director, producer, screenwriter, long-time activist, Angelina Jolie is also the godmother of the entrepreneurial and environmental programme launched by Guerlain and UNESCO, "Women for bees". In Cambodia, a country dear to her heart, the buzz-y Jolie will be overseeing twelve women training to become beekeepers. An initiative that is far from being... sugar-coated!

- Virginie Dolata

FRIDAY 6PM, AN APRIL DAY: Angelina Jolie appears on my computer screen. No, I am not watching Eternals on Netflix or Those who wish me dead on Canal+ and I am not hallucinating. She is there, via Zoom, smiling, barely made up, her skin perfect, her long hair loose and sweeping around her face. There is interaction, as she starts to respond to my first question. There is even a form of complicity, between women, between mothers, that quickly takes hold. Jolie has a gift for making you feel that you belong to the same community. Well, almost, except for a few differences, of which she is well aware. And that's what this e-meeting is all about: discussing this wonderful cohort of women training to become beekeepers, resulting in increased autonomy, individual and local economic benefits, and an environmental impact that is positive to all, including the bees.

Angelina Jolie is a woman of conviction and action who has been using her worldwide fame for years in the service of humanitarian, environmental and feminist causes, with a real vision of the world and a sincere empathy for others. For almost twenty years, this mother of six children (three of whom were adopted) has been working in Cambodia with her MJP (Maddox Jolie-Pitt) foundation, contributing to the alleviation of extreme rural poverty, environmental protection and wildlife conservation. MJP also supports healthcare, education, agriculture and women's empowerment programmes.

To top it all off, Jolie is also a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commission: I'm doing a lot of my work as Special Envoy with the UN, especially with the crisis in Ukraine and other parts of the world. Recently, I have been working in Washington D.C. on the Violence Against Women Act, she adds.