I was going to wait until tomorrow during the day to do a full update, but Jason has emailed me something great. Here is the first picture of Natalie in Africa (Uganda in particular) along with a nice article about her charity work there involving FINCA.

American film actor lauds Ugandan women
Publication date: Thursday, 12th July, 2007
By Charles Opolot

An American film star, Natalie Portman, has commended Ugandan women for their entrepreneurship, saying it has brought hope to vulnerable communities.

Portman, who is also a Goodwill ambassador for the Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA), is in the country on a poverty eradication campaign.

She will show support for women’s initiatives in championing trade and investments using small loans.

Portman noted that Ugandan women were a role model in Africa.
“I want to show my great support for Ugandan women. They have demonstrated great initiative, enthusiasm and a drive to make a difference in their lives and the whole community using meagre resources. This is good and all people of goodwill should support them,” she said on Wednesday while visiting women groups which do small-scale businesses with loans provided by FINCA Uganda.

Portman, who has featured in “Star Wars”, “Phantom Menace”, won the 2004 Golden Globe Award as the Best Supporting Actress for he movie “Closer”.

She has been the FINCA international goodwill ambassador since 2005.

According to Tom Ouma, the sales and marketing manager of FINCA, the firm has over 40,000 clients in 13 branches countrywide and they hope to increase the number to 74,000 by December.

The bank gives out loans at affordable interest rates, Ouma explained.

I’ll be back later in the day (after I sleep) with some other little tidbits.

Thanks again Jason, you rock!