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    Search Natalie Portman visits with Namutebi Jacqueline, right, in Uganda, who adopted Sandra, left, and Marvin after their parents died of AIDS. Jacqueline cares for 13 kids, seven her own grandkids. By Dave Hughes, Getty Images, via The Listen Campaign Natalie Portman is force for change, empowering women Updated | Comment | Recommend | | | MORE CELEBRITY CAUSES On location: BIG-NAME LARGESS Among places to find more information on celebrities and charities: ý Looktothestars.org . The site allows users to find out which charities their favorite celebrities support, offering interviews and news updates. Users can search the site's database by cause, celebrity or charity. ý GivingBack.org . The Giving Back Fund encourages and advises entertainers and athletes on establishing charities. It also produces and annual list of top celebrity donors. The fund is preparing case histories on celebrity philanthropists, which it plans to post online. ý TheCreativeCoalition.org . The coalition is composed of celebrities who lobby for various causes, particularly First Amendment issuess, education and the arts. MORE HEADLINES FROM SHARING IN THE USA fullCoverage=' Fresh face: State by state: | Economy: | Celebrities: | Survivors: Athletes: | More Close Kids with a cause: | Religion: | Manatees: Habitat: ' By Donna Freydkin, USA TODAY Ask Natalie Portman about her love life, and she'll shut you down. But mention microfinance, and she'll gab for hours. "People care so much more about who I'm dating," says Portman, who has starred in films from The Other Boleyn Girl to Stars Wars . "We have such an unwarranted spotlight on us." Diverting attention toward a cause "as opposed to talking about fashion," she says, "is a nice way to dissipate this over interest in people who aren't that interesting." CELEBRITIES: Anyone who has met Portman knows she's no dummy. The actress, 27, is erudite and thoughtful. In 2003, she graduated from Harvard University with a degree in psychology. That same year, she connected with FINCA International (the Foundation for International Community Assistance), which provides microloans to women in developing countries. Her relationship with FINCA, which has a four-star rating (the highest) on the website CharityNavigator.org, has been more enduring than most Hollywood marriages. Much like Angelina Jolie and Bono, who set the celebrity gold standard on international philanthropy, Portman wants to draw attention to issues that aren't particularly sexy. Neither FINCA's mission nor its work is easily explainable. Talk to Portman for five minutes, and you realize that the Oscar-nominated actress knows of what she speaks. Portman, who serves as FINCA's ambassador of hope, reels off statistics and name-checks specific programs. The Israeli-American actress (she was born in Jerusalem) gravitated toward FINCA because of her interest in the Middle East and a desire to collaborate with Jordan's Queen Rania Al-Abdullah, who chairs FINCA's Village Banking campaign. "She's this incredible woman whom I really admire. She's Palestinian, and I was inspired by her and thought we could do some sort of women's Middle Eastern initiative," Portman says. "When I contacted her office, they said she was really excited about FINCA. I had no idea what that meant, so I started exploring it. And then I started traveling with them to learn about it." Before affiliating herself with a cause, Portman wanted to learn as much as possible "so I could really stand behind what I am promoting and understand the intricacy of it," she says. "I traveled to Guatemala with (FINCA), and then I went to Uganda and Ecuador and started really learning and seeing, on the ground, how effective the program is. In Guatemala, you don't really see hunger — you see malnourishment. In Uganda, you see real starvation." ATHLETES: You also see progress when struggling women finally acquire things that Americans can buy at Bed Bath & Beyond. "In Guatemala, I remember seeing a family with four generations of women. It might have even been five. They were together, living together, and the grandmother was watching the baby while the women were in the market," Portman says. "They had a small food stand, and with a loan they were able to buy a scale. That vastly grew their business. They got a refrigerator. Whatever they didn't sell could keep for longer." Portman recently embarked on a tour of college campuses to talk about FINCA's work. She also helps raise funds for the organization. She has found something of a role model in Queen Rania. "She's so warm and so smart. She's an incredible, incredible woman," Portman says. "I've always been suspicious of monarchy, with our culture of democracy, but their monarchs are better than our elected officials. They're doing so much good for their nation," she says. Working with FINCA and traveling to developing countries to see its success stories firsthand proved revelatory for Portman. "It definitely makes you realize how it's really just luck where you're born and what opportunities you're given. It opened my eyes to the fact that we're really the minority in being able to read a newspaper, to be an educated woman who can feed herself," she says. "It made me much more aware of the accumulation mentality," she adds. "Everyone is always trying to convince you that you need something new, and then you meet people that have one shirt. If I have 40 shirts, why would I ever buy anything more? And if I do, let me give everything I have away." Posted Updated | | | To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor . For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to . Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. . • • • • • • • About USATODAY.com: | | | | | | | | News Your Way: | | | | | Partners: | | | Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of