Humanitarian work left me tearful: Jolie

NEW YORK - Angelina Jolie (right) says her work as a humanitarian ambassador for the United Nations left her tearful and overwhelmed at first.

'The first two years, I just cried constantly,' the actress told Newsweek magazine. 'I couldn't really talk about the situation without being emotional. And I went through a period of just complete lack of hope.'

During her visit to the Oure Cassoni camp on the border between Darfur and Chad last month, she came across a disturbed seven-year-old boy whose family had tied him to a pole to keep him from wandering away or hurting himself.

The boy had spent 48 hours hiding in the bush after his village was bombed.

'I talked to him for like half an hour and just kind of looked at him for a long time before he touched me,' Jolie told the magazine, 'and there was a little boy in there who was open to a kind sound.'

Six years ago, she read about what the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) does and became fixated on the idea she had to help.

'I remember sitting up for two days straight and reading everything obsessively,' she said. When she approached the UNHCR, 'I think they thought I was a little crazy'.

She has visited camps in Africa, Pakistan and Cambodia as part of her work as a goodwill ambassador for the UNHCR. She said she travels unaccompanied on commercial flights and does not care about people who describe what she does as 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,' said Jolie, who wants to return to Cambodia.