Actress Angelina Joie is facing strong criticism over her adoption of an Ethiopian orphan named Zahara.

It now appears that the baby has a grandmother who was desperate to raise the money needed to keep her.

According to Hollywood.com, the grandmother Almaz Blfnhe worked hard to take care of the baby for four months after her daughter Mentewabe died from complications in childbirth.

Almaz eventually realised she was too poor to take care of Zahara.

Various children's charities are critical of Jolie and argue that a better way for her to help would have been to donate some of her fortune to help the heartbroken family.

A spokesperson for the League for African Development said: "A more sensitive solution would have been for her (Jolie) to help the grandmother in the same way that people sponsor children abroad.

"Alternatively she could have adopted a child that truly had no one else on the planet to care for it."

Almaz said: "No woman wants to give away her own flesh and blood but the adoption office said they could give her a better life."

She appealed to Jolie: "Send me a picture one day so I can remember my granddaughter and her beautiful big brown eyes, just like my daughter's eyes."