Matt Damon Brings Water to Africa

Celebrities are famous, rich, and have a lot of time to spare. So, why don't they use their celebrity status to do something usefull for humanity? I guessed doing social activities is a part of celebrities lifestyle to increase their fame and looking for some sympathy. But I believed there are still some celebs who're doing a humanitarian work thruthfully and with sincerety (and I mean really doing something, not just merely going nude to save fur). Let's take a look what Matt Damon, whose famous of his role as Jason Bourne in Bourne Movies Trilogy, does to help people in Africa.



Matt Damon is the co-founder of the H2O Africa Project which supports sustainable, clean water programs to ease the challenges that dirty water brings to Africans. Matt explains how clean water can alleviate health, education, and human-rights problems, ”…I witnessed extreme poverty and the role that clean drinking water plays in getting millions out of danger. I learned that a child dies every 15 seconds due to diseases from dirty water. Of all sickness, disease and premature death in developing countries, a stunning 80% is the consequence of bad or no water. With clean water, we can empty 50% of hospital beds and allow the health budget to go to other critical care needs.”


H2O Africa’s goal is to bring public awareness of the water crisis in Africa, and to provide training so the programs can be maintained and continue into the future. The foundation has already set up projects in countries such as Uganda, Central African Republic, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Niger. Matt Damon tells a touching story in his personal statement on the site about being motivated to help after walking two miles with a 14 year-old girl to the nearest water source for her village. She told him her dream was to move to a nearby city and become a nurse.


Establishing the H2O Africa Foundation, Damon, 37, hopes the work he’s done will now inspire others to do the same. “I think many of our problems would be solved if people had thick passports,” he says. “There’s just no substitute for actually going and seeing things.” When you’re a celebrity, he observes, “you start to feel a level of responsibility to direct attention to things that actually matter more than to silly things like who you’re dating.” Good point Matt!