Angelina Jolie Watch

Angelina looked stunning last night at the Vital Voice Gala where she presented Marianne Pearl with an award for her courage and reconciliation work.

Pictured left to right: Vital Voices Global Partnership Chair Melanne Verveer, Mariane Pearl, Vice Chair of Vital Voices Mary Yerrick and Vital Voices President Alyse Nelson Bloom.

Vital Voices Global Partnership is the preeminent non-governmental organization (NGO) that identifies, trains, and empowers emerging women leaders and social entrepreneurs around the globe, enabling them to create a better world for us all. We provide these women with the capacity, connections, and credibility they need to unlock their leadership potential.

Other recipients besides Marianne included:

Kakenya Ntaiya of Kenya who agreed to endure a painful mutilation so that she could finish high school and attend college. She even managed to persuade her village to collect money for her education though no girl had ever left the village to attend college in the United States. She’s expected to receive her doctorate in education in 2009.

Sheikha Lubna al-Qasimi is the first female cabinet member of the United Arab Emirates and the first female finance minister in the history of the Middle East.

Laura Alonso of Argentina is the executive director of Citizen Power and Argentinian watchdog group dedicated to fight corruption.

Charm Tong “was 17, she stood before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and described what was happening in her home country. Burma’s military regime was conducting a campaign of terror against the civilians in the Shan region, where many of Burma’s ethnic people live.” She has since traveled the world telling her story.

Khin Ohmar of Burma “is now one of the world’s leading voices against the violent regime that still rules Burma today. She is based in Mae Sot, on the border between Thailand and Burma, from where she serves as the chair of the Network for Democracy and Development (Burma), vice-chair of Burmese Women’s Union and policy forum member of Forum for Democracy in Burma—an umbrella organization of Burmese political groups in exile.”

Kudos to all these wonderful women.

Photo Source: Just Jared