MrsSpringsteen
Blue Crack Addict
Hollywood actress Ashley Judd strokes the head and holds hands while talking to 38-year-old Cambodian man Neang Sarath, a victim of the AIDS virus, during a visit to a hospice in Phnom Penh Wednesday July 7, 2004. Ashley Judd is in Cambodia to raise HIV /AIDS awareness as YouthAIDS' Global Ambassador.
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia's tragic past and present moved Hollywood star Ashley Judd to tears on Wednesday as she visited a hospice for people dying of AIDS and a museum of the "Killing Fields" genocide of the Khmer Rouge.
"I feel very sad, but I feel very privileged that I've been allowed to see some beautiful people," she told reporters after visiting the Center for Hope hospice in Phnom Penh.
At times, it was almost too much for the actress as she met wan and emaciated patients in the hospice, set up to give a handful of Cambodia's estimated 170,000 AIDS victims a place to die with a modicum of dignity.
"I'm very pleased that they received me and allowed me to visit with them. I'm very grateful to the people that provide their health care with such dignity," she said, with tears in her eyes.