Matt Damon Writes On The Importance Of Giving Back

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:00:00 -0000

Matt Damon has put pen to paper and written an article for Parade Magazine on the importance of giving back.

“Here’s something that matters to me right now,” wrote Damon, who is a founder of Not On Our Watch, H2O Africa and Water.org. "Every 15 seconds, a child dies because of a lack of clean water and sanitation. I should probably repeat that: Every 15 seconds, a child dies because of a lack of clean water and sanitation. A billion people on our planet will never have a clean drink of water. There are 2.5 billion people in the world without toilet facilities. That kind of deprivation isn’t even on our radar in the U.S., but in Africa it’s the central preoccupation of many people’s lives. And the most devastating thing about it is that it takes so little to change it. Just $25 will give someone clean water for life—yes, just $25 will change someone’s future forever.

“I’ve taken a lot of trips in the last few years to places like Africa and India and Haiti to try to learn what conditions are like. You can read about extreme poverty and possible solutions, but it’s really powerful when you get to meet the people and shake their hands and listen to their stories. I try to keep my trips short because my kids are so young that my wife, Lucy, can’t come. We don’t like to be separated, but we both feel it’s so important to learn about these things. There’s so much I don’t know. In the future, I know these trips are something we’ll do as a family.

“There’s so much need, it’s so hard to decide where to give. For me, I look at the organizations that are actually doing the work on the ground. I co-founded Water.org, which focuses on water and sanitation. I was in Ethiopia earlier this year, and I watched children taking filthy water out of a hand-dug well and putting it in bottles to take to school. The water was so dirty, it looked like chocolate milk. I wanted to knock it out of their hands and say, “Don’t drink that—it could kill you.” The dilemma is that drinking nothing at all will kill them even faster. Parents in these impoverished areas lose children every year to diseases that could be completely prevented if they had access to clean water.

“Please find out what you can do to make a difference. Take five minutes to educate yourself on an issue you didn’t know about before. Then tell somebody else. Or make a small donation, if you can. Every dollar counts. Charitable foundations would rather have a million people donate $1 each than have a handful of people write big checks, because that means millions of us are getting involved. If you give $5 and talk to your neighbor about giving $5, that’s a big deal. If that conversation goes on across the country, we’ll really start moving some mountains.

“We’re here for such a short time. When your great-great-grandkids study history, don’t you want them to be proud that you were part of the solution?”

To read the full article Damon has written, visit the Parade Magazine website. You can also join Parade Magazine’s Giving Challenge – in which you could win $50,000 for your favorite charity – by clicking here.

Matt Damon Opens Clinton Global Initiative For Water.org

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:00:00 -0000

Today at the opening plenary of the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, Water.org co-founders Matt Damon and Gary White announced the organization’s $2 million commitment to provide 50,000 people in Haiti with safe water and sanitation over the next three years. As part of the commitment, Water.org has also launched a social media campaign so that anyone can participate in meeting the water challenge in Haiti.

“The situation in Haiti is extreme – it’s the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and nearly half of its people don’t have access to clean water,” said Water.org Co-Founder Gary White. “Expanding Water.org’s programming to Haiti will help people break the cycle of disease and poverty.”

Water.org’s Haiti Commitment will reach beneficiaries with grant-driven programs while also exploring opportunities with microfinance institutions in Haiti under its WaterCredit Initiative. WaterCredit is a financial innovation that brings microfinance to the world’s poor who lack safe water and sanitation. It is the first comprehensive program of its kind to move beyond grant-driven charity and enables microfinance activity in the water and sanitation sector. WaterCredit leverages commercial capital and motivates microfinance institutions to launch loan portfolios to assist the poor who lack basic water and sanitation services.

The Haiti Challenge encourages visitors to fundraise and “friend-raise” for the cause through their online social networks. Getting a friend to really care about the water crisis is as important as asking for a donation. The Haiti Challenge website includes new technologies that leverage the most popular social media sites, making it quick and easy for people to invite their friends and followers to support the cause. Learn more about the Haiti Challenge and get involved at www.water.org.

Look To The Stars News: Water.org

Matt Damon Writes On The Importance Of Giving Back

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