Jolie and Pitt 'Clean Streets' alongside Wyclef Jean in Haiti

US actress Angelina Jolie arrives at the Toussaint
Louverture Airport 13 January 2006 in Port-au-Prince,
Haiti. Jolie arrived with US actor Brad Pitt from the
neighboring Dominican Republic, where Jolie is filming
'The Good Shepherd,' a CIA thriller being directed by
Robert De Niro. Jolie, who is reportedly pregnant with
Pitt's child, went to Haiti to lend support to friend and
hip hop artist, Wyclef Jean. AFP PHOTO/Walter ASTRADA

Monday,  January 16, 2006

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP): Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Hollywood's couple du jour, choppered into Haiti Friday to join hip-hop star Wyclef Jean's Clean Streets project for the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Dressed in black and sporting huge sunglasses, the two stars -- Jolie now carrying Pitt's baby -- dropped in to support the US government-funded city cleanup project from neighboring Dominican Republic, where Jolie is making a new movie directed by Robert De Niro.

Clean Streets aims at removing garbage from the Port-au-Prince area, creating jobs and generating a more stable environment in the process, according to a project statement.

The program is driven by Haitian-born Jean's Yele Haiti movement with support from the Pan American Development Foundation, as well as the anti-poverty organization CARE.

"Haiti needs creative alternatives to confront its overwhelming challenges of poverty, ill health, and poor sanitation," said PADF director John Currelly in a statement.

"The Clean Streets program has opened new avenues for development in Haiti."

Clean Streets employs about 1,400 people who, together with 30 trucks, move through the capital's streets each day picking up refuse, even pushing through the closed slums controlled by armed gangs.

The workers wear shirts proclaiming, in the local Creole language, "Respect yourself, clean your country".

The program also taps into Jean's music, with his pro-cleanup jingle playing on local radio and his tape on buses. The program also backs a hip-hop music competition for slum kids, built around the Clean Streets theme.

United Nations Goodwill Ambassador Jolie, together with songstress Norah Jones, is on the foundation of Jean's Yele Haiti foundation, which has also rebuilt schools and helped feed poor families in the country.

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