After Dangerous Trip, George Clooney Headed to DC to Testify on Sudan

If there’s anything I like, it’s stars who have done their homework. While people like Woody Harrelson mouth off about the GOP, people like George Clooney travel, without bodyguards, to Sudan.

I don’t always agree with Clooney politically, but I respect him. He has taken an issue, Sudan, made himself an expert, and made himself an advocate. I don’t think either party knows the answers on this horrible, murderous situation in Sudan.

As the wildly viral “Kony 2012” video has shown us, this region of Africa is where warlords can kidnap children and force them into their militias or sex slavery. It’s the kind of lawless environment where the strong prey on the weak and help seems so very far away.

George Clooney will be in DC tomorrow to draw attention to this complex and problematic region.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

The testimony comes following Clooney’s post-Oscar trip to the region, where he crossed the Nuba Mountains into South Sudan to take in the continuing damage wrought by Sudan’s war. The star has made a number of trips to the war-torn nation, each one of them a risk to his health and safety.

“Everything about it is difficult, and you never feel safe, and we are not traveling with guns and security guys,” he recently told The Hollywood Reporter about the excursions, recalling a time he was stopped by 13-year-old children with guns before a colleague was able to swat them away.

Clooney has been an active advocate for the cause for years; he first traveled to Darfur in 2006 to assess the humanitarian crises there, after which he spoke at the United Nations to urge intervention to stop the genocide. He runs the Not on Our Watch organization, which works to spread awareness of and end the killings, and he has not only risked his life for the cause, he’s sacrificed his health too,contracting malaria during a 2011 trip.

That’s commitment, and that’s using your fame for a good cause. Nice job, George.

Photo: The Hollywood Reporter, Joe Pugliese

George Clooney Secretly Traveled to Sudan, Will Testify at Senate Hearing – The Hollywood Reporter.