Andrew McConnell / UNHCR via Getty ImagesWhile she may have been turning heads with partner Brad Pitt at the 2014 BAFTA Awards last Sunday, Angelina Jolie was busy jet setting off to Lebanon less than one week later.
The mother of six and UN special envoy met with thousands of Syrian refugee children in Lebanon this weekend, calling for an end to the war across the border during her surprise visit.
Jolie reportedly spend three days visiting with over 3,500 orphaned and displaced children living in the eastern Bekaa Valley of Lebanon. According to reports, children make up an estimated one-third of all Syrians displaced by the nearly three-year war in the country, which continues to rage on between President Bashar Assad's government and opposition rebels.
"Meeting these children was a heart-rending experience,'' Jolie said in a statement. "They have lost their families and their childhood has been hijacked by war. They are so young, yet they are bearing the burdens of their reality as if they are adults."
Brad Pitt's missus urged the international community to support Lebanon, and she praised the adoption of a UN Security Council aid resolution on Saturday which would boost access to humanitarian aid in Syria.
Describing the resolution as "a long overdue step in the right direction for the hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrian men, women and children trapped in hard to reach areas across Syria," the Oscar-winning actress also stressed the importance of its implementation.
"The generosity and solidarity shown by Lebanon and Lebanese to its neighbor serves as an example to the world for which we should all be grateful," Jolie said, thanking Lebanon for hosting the Syrian refugees. "We all need to help them bear this burden."
And she also expressed her hope that the resolution would be "the start of a new phase in ending the conflict."
This is Jolie's third visit to Lebanon on behalf of the UNHCR. She previously met with Syrian refugees in Beirut, Lebanon back in September 2012.