Ben Affleck Visits Refugee Camps in Congo
While wife Jennifer Garner is just weeks away from giving birth to their second child, Ben Affleck is visiting war-torn refugee camps in the Central African country of Congo.
This is Ben's fourth trip to the country since 2007 and he's said to be working on a documentary to raise awareness about the country's plight.
"I'm not an expert in international affairs or diplomacy, but it doesn't take that to see the tremendous suffering here," he told The Associated Press. "It's not something that we as human beings can, in good conscience, ignore."
Ben says he first became interested in Congo when many Hollywood stars were focusing on the situation in nearby Darfur. He says he was shocked when he learned an estimated 5 million people had died in only 4 years during a war in Congo.
"I thought a lot of people are advocating on Darfur. I'd just be a very small log on a big fire. I started getting interested in Congo and I thought, this is a place where I can have a really big impact," he said.
"I think that, for better or worse, people with some profile in the arts have some currency to spend as celebrities. And for a time, I didn't spend that in any particularly productive way. And I got to a point where I thought, this is wasteful."
The situation there is so tragic, we certainly applaud Ben's efforts to raise awareness.
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