The former Friends actress jetted off to the sun-soaked resort of Los Cabos last week (Begs01Feb10) with pals Courteney Cox, Sheryl Crow and rumoured love interest Gerard Butler for a week of fun leading up to her birthday on Wednesday (11Feb10).
And Aniston has revealed she chose the destination to help encourage others to return to Mexico for holidays following the recent swine flu outbreak, which crippled the country last year (09).
She tells Access Hollywood she arranged the trip after a male friend suggested it to her: “He said to me, ’You come to Mexico all the time and Mexico is really hurting right now because of the swine flu and the drug trafficking and all of this sort of stuff but it’s not all of Mexico.’ These people survive on us coming down and spending money and coming here to these beautiful places. It sort of made sense to sort of say ‘Hey, let’s help out Mexico.’ Let’s shout out to these kids in Tijuana at El Faro. That’s sort of our birthday celebration this year.”
And Aniston will take time out from her celebrations to launch a charity initiative for the El Faro organisation, which raises funds for an orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico.
She adds, “I have to tell you when you drive up to this place you see these kids come running out and you hear a chorus of (sings), and they are just bright. These kids don’t feel like they are sitting there going, ‘Oh my life sucks, look at where I live.’ They have been given a lot of love and they’re getting educated, which is the most important thing for them is to have an education and have knowledge of what they can do.”
