Angelina’s Cambodian Charity HQ- Daily Mail
- Angelina Jolie’s home in Cambodia, which also acts as the headquarters for her charity the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation, is made up of a few shacks in a field
- The compound in Samlaut, in the Battambang province, has no running water, electricity for only four hours a day at night and has no mobile phone signal
- According to a handbook distributed to visiting health specialists who are assigned to the MJP, conditions at the compound are Spartan at best
- Meals consist of mostly white rice every day and workers are banned from having sex, the handbook states
- Unlike Jolie, who is ferried in and out by helicopter, workers get around on motorbike and have to be wary of snakes, mosquitoes and land mines
- Mounh Sarath oversaw MJP’s operations from 2001 to 2006, and said Jolie only spends time at the property during the day, flying out at night by helicopter
By CHRIS WHITE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
Angelina Jolie’s supposedly palatial home in Cambodia has no running water, electricity for only four hours a day and is made up of just a few shacks in a field, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
It’s always been thought the 44-year-old had a paradise rural retreat, but her compound is just a line of ‘thatched buildings’.
It’s situated in the remote area of Samlaut, in the Battambang province, and also acts as the field headquarters for the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation (MJP), her international non-profit charity.
According to a handbook distributed to visiting health specialists who are assigned to MJP, conditions at the compound are Spartan at best.
Staff are provided meals of white rice and little else every day and are banned from having sex.
But while volunteers have to stay at the compound, Jolie prefers to stay elsewhere, flying to a different destination at nights via a helicopter.
The charity’s compound hosts visiting workers from the United Kingdon’s National Health Service (NHS).
Since 2008, the Thames Valley and Wessex NHS Leadership Academy, based in Hampshire, has been sending two health specialists for six-month placements every year to work with MJP.
MJP workers help give expertise in areas such as malnutrition, breastfeeding and improving post-natal care. The medics are expected to be respectful to locals and are given a handbook (pictured) on how to behave
The workers help give expertise in areas such as malnutrition, breastfeeding and improving post-natal care. The medics are expected to be respectful to locals and are given a handbook on how to behave while in the country.
But the compound where the volunteers stay is not quite what’s expected when owned by a Hollywood star, who is reportedly worth $300 million.
Instead of a huge mansion, the compound is just a series of shacks with no running water, minimal electricity, no mobile phone signal, hand washing only, and the charity provides very basic meals.
‘This is a secure compound containing small thatched buildings providing accommodation for rangers, ground staff, educationalist and visitors. There are often interesting people around and it can be a hive of activity. Therefore space is often at a premium and you may need to share a bedroom,’ the NHS handbook states.
‘Wash facilities are unisex and located separately from the bedrooms. There is no piped water so showers are taken by pouring a ladle of cold water over oneself. It’s quite refreshing!’
The handbook continues: ‘Samlaut accommodation is fully catered so three meals a day are provided to all staff. There are no other cooking facilities.
‘The meals are all based on white rice with a selection of dishes.
‘This can become a little monotonous so it is advisable to stock up on alternative tastes in Battambang.
‘Electricity is available in Samlaut from 6pm until 10pm each evening and currently the only communication link is via radio.
‘This will change soon as a mobile phone mast has been erected. The strength of the signal is not yet known.’
Unlike Jolie, who is ferried in and out of Samlaut by helicopter, workers get around on motorbike and have to be wary of snakes, mosquitoes and land mines.
‘Snakes live in the area so when about after dark do use your torch and shake your shoes in the morning before putting them on,’ the handbook adds.
Sex is strictly forbidden, with the handbook stating: ‘It is MJP policy that no MJP worker engages in sexual activity of any kind around Samlaut or Battambang. Delegates are expected to comply with this policy.’
Further rules for staff include nude bathing being ‘unacceptable’ and ensuring never to motion anyone over using your index finger, as in Cambodian culture this ‘can be interpreted as sexually suggestive.’
These DailyMail.com photos of the compound were taken earlier last year and show it half-built, with an overrun soccer field and homemade volleyball court.
In March 2017, it was revealed Angelina visited the compound after the Cambodian premiere of her film First They Killed My Father.
Jolie herself said at the press conference in Siam Reap: ‘We’ve been coming back and forth for 17 years. It feels like a second home to me.’
Local Chum Ny lives next door and revealed at the time: ‘She goes swimming in the morning and the evening when she is here – sometime alone and sometimes with her colleagues and her children.
‘Angelina goes down to the river wearing just her pajamas and a swimming suit. She is very pretty in the films but when we see her in real life she is not so glamorous.’
Mounh Sarath was Jolie’s right-hand man in Cambodia for five years from 2001 to 2006, overseeing her charity operations in the country.
He exclusively said Jolie only spends time at the property during the day, adding that she had fallen in love with the site as soon as she saw it.
‘She only lives there during the day, then flies out at night by helicopter,’ says Sarath. ‘She just wanted the land. She loved the waterfall, she loved the compound. She would say: ”I loooove this project.”’
The property is in one of the most deprived areas of Cambodia.
Most people who live close to Jolie’s estate in Samlaut are earning less than a dollar a day; families live in wooden huts no bigger than the size of an average American’s kitchen.
