Look To The Stars News: H2O Africa

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 Launches New Charity Organization

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:00:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Matt Damon has launched a new charity project aimed at providing access to safe water in the some of the world’s poorest countries.

Damon is to merge his H2O Africa charity – aimed at creating widespread public awareness of the water crisis in Africa and gathering support for clean water programs in critical areas – with WaterPartners to create a new organization – Water.org – a non-profit focused on bringing access to safe water and sanitation to the developing world.

Water.org will leverage grassroots awareness-building expertise and nearly two decades of demonstrated innovation and success in the sector to help the nearly 890 million people without safe water and the more than 2.5 billion people without safe sanitation.

“Every 15 seconds, a child in the developing world dies from water-related disease,” said Damon. “After visiting project sites in Africa and Asia, I’ve seen the problem and the impact of safe water. As a clear leader in the sector at delivering innovative and sustainable solutions for those in need, WaterPartners was the natural choice with whom to work to truly affect lasting change.”

“For more than 20 years I’ve been working to realize the vision of global access to safe water, and with the help of our donors, staff, partner organizations, and the H2OAfrica team, I’m confident we can accelerate our impact,” added Gary White, founder of WaterPartners and the Executive Director of the new organization. “It will open the door to advocacy work, and bring the water issue to new heights in the public’s consciousness.”

To visit the official site of the new organization, click here.

Matt Damon Joins Entourage For Charity

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:00:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Matt Damon will make a cameo appearance on the latest season of Entourage to promote a charity he is involved with.

“It wasn’t hard to get him,” Entourage executive producer Doug Elin told TV Guide. “Matt came on the phone with me and wanted to do something that focused on his charity, [charity:ONEXONE}, which helps kids all over the world.”

Damon will join NBA star LeBron James in the episode, which features Damon forcing Adrian Grenier's character to donate more to the charity than he intended to.

“The joke is that Matt is very passionate about his charity—almost in a stalkerish kind of way,” said Grenier. “Vince [Grenier’s character] becomes [intimidated] by his intensity. He ends up bullying Vince into giving much more than he should.”

Damon has hosted several galas for ONEXONE, and undertaken several overseas visits to promote the charity’s work. ONEXONE is well known for supporting, preserving and improving the lives of children in Canada and around the world. ONEXONE is a non-profit organization that supports children in Canada and abroad. Established less than four years ago by Joelle Adler, it has already raised over $5 million and created partnerships with major corporations and foundations, such as H2O Africa, the Yéle Haiti Foundation, Millennium Promise, War Child and Spread the Net.

The episode will screen as the finale of Entourage’s sixth season finale on October 4.

Matt Damon's Sahara Documentary Aids African Water Crisis

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:30:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

The premiere of Matt Damon's Running The Sahara documentary will take place on Showtime on Sunday, January 11.

As reported by Look To The Stars in July 2007, Damon founded the Running the Sahara expedition’s charity, H2O Africa, to help raise awareness of the water crisis in Africa. After witnessing the extreme poverty and the value of clean drinking water in Zambia and South Africa, the actor decided to get involved in the Running the Sahara project. Along with Oscar winning filmmaker James Moll, he documented the Running the Sahara expedition, in which three men ran over 4,300 miles (6,920 kilometres) from the Atlantic coast of Senegal, through Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Libya, to the Red Sea in Egypt.

Narrated and produced by Damon, the film crew followed the runners crossing the desert, braving extreme elements and meeting the unique people of the Sahara who are struggling with immense daily challenges.

The World Health Organization estimates that the lack of safe drinking water kills almost 4,500 children per day, mostly under the age of five.

The documentary screens at 9pm ET.

Matt Damon Hosts ONE X ONE Gala In San Francisco

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:00:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Matt Damon, Wyclef Jean, Carlos Santana, Josh Groban, David Arquette, and the African Children's Choir came together in San Francisco on Thursday night for a fundraising extravaganza to benefit ONEXONE.

The evening raised money to be distributed between organizations such as H2O Africa, Feeding America, Water Partners, and the Yéle Haiti Foundation, and featured an auction that included lots such as the chance to feature Damon on the set of his next movie, The Human Factor. The film – which will be directed by Clint Eastwood – will tell the story of Nelson Mandela's struggle for freedom, and three people paid $20,000 for the opportunity to visit the set.

“If Eastwood doesn’t like the idea of having a lot of people around the set,” Damon said, “I guess my trailer’s going to be pretty crowded with a lot of people playing video games.”

Damon, Arquette, and Jean also took the time to visit the San Francisco Food Bank and help out by filling bags and boxes of food for the city’s underprivileged.

Damon’s philanthropic attitude is something he is interested in passing on to his own children: “It’s a hard thing to explain to a kid,” he told People Magazine, referring to poverty. “And it is also unbelievable the way other kids are forced to live. The way you have to parent them is to show them the world. Explaining the world can only go so far. You can read about devastation every morning – it’s on the front page of the newspaper – but when you actually go there and see it, you realize this isn’t something you can turn the page on.”

Matt Damon Hosts ONE X ONE Awards

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:30:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Matt Damon returned to Toronto on Monday to host his third consecutive Difference Awards ceremony for ONEXONE.

Over 500 guest attended the gala, which featured performances from Wyclef Jean, John Legend, Nikki Yanofsky, and the African Children's Choir.

ONEXONE is a non-profit organization that supports children in Canada and abroad. Established less than four years ago by Joelle Adler, it has already raised over $5 million and created partnerships with major corporations and foundations, such as H2O Africa, the Yéle Haiti Foundation, Millennium Promise, War Child and Spread the Net.

“This is stupid poverty we’re talking about,” said Damon, during his speech about helping people in Africa. “Every day, malaria claims thousands of lives that we didn’t need to lose.”

Damon also revealed that he credits becoming a parent for his commitment to helping children through charity work: “At a certain point it becomes difficult to look at other children and not see your own. Something does change in you once you become a parent… There definitely is a shift there that makes you, I think, a little more obsessed about helping children – But it’s not like before I had kids, I was like: ‘to heck with those kids!’”

ONEXONE will launch in the US in October, with an event featuring Carlos Santana planned for San Francisco. And Damon is proud to announce that next year Eddie Vedder has been confirmed to perform for the organization.

“A lot of my friends and a lot of the people I admire in the business choose to spend their celebrity capital trying to raise awareness about things and improve the conditions in people’s lives,” said Damon. “We’ll all be lying on that bed one day, and you have to make your peace with who you’ve been.”

Matt Damon Returns For ONE X ONE

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:30:00 -0000

Written by Elizabeth Willoughby

For the third year in a row, Matt Damon will host ONEXONE's annual charity benefit gala, where celebrities and activists will gather for an evening of musical performances, words from key speakers, fundraising and entertainment.

ONEXONE’s Difference Awards will also be presented at the gala, recognizing individuals for their extraordinary efforts in fighting child poverty and suffering. One of last year’s honorees, Wyclef Jean, is returning this year as musical director and performer. Other entertainment will include John Legend and the African Children’s Choir, which is raising awareness of the needs of Africa’s orphans and destitute children.

A fairly young organization, ONEXONE raises millions of dollars each year for projects within Canada and abroad for partners such as H2O Africa, the Yéle Haiti Foundation, Millennium Promise, War Child and Spread the Net to “directly impact children in need around the world – one by one.”

“There is an old biblical adage that says ‘You save one life, you save the universe,’” said Joelle Adler, ONEXONE’s founder. “That should be our motto. We cannot look across the water and pretend it is not our responsibility because together we can change the world.”

The gala and concert will be held at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto on September 8 and a second gala will take place at Exhibition Centre in San Francisco on October 23 honoring Carlos Santana.

Damon and Affleck Travel to Africa

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:53:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

September has already turned into a busy month for actor Matt Damon, and has seen him hosting a major children’s gala event, attending a screening of the documentary he produced to bring awareness to H2O Africa, and now flying to Africa.

September 10 saw Damon and long time friend, Ben Affleck, traveling to Tanzania to learn about the aid work being carried out in the country.

“We’re just going to observe these programs,” said Damon, who visited Zambia on a similar trip in 2006. “Our job is just to be quiet and take notes and meet people and listen to peoples’ stories.”

The Academy Award winning actor and screenwriter also hoped to spend time in the troubled region of Darfur, but that part of the trip was cancelled due to increasing security alerts.

“I’m still open to going, and I hope to go,” said Damon, who has already raised over $10 million this year for the region with Don Cheadle, George Clooney and Brad Pitt. “There’s clearly an appetite back at home for what the issues are there, but also it’s a very complicated situation there… and it keeps changing.”

Damon also hosted the annual ONEXONE benefit gala on September 9, the night before flying to Tanzania. The event, held at the Four Seasons Centre For Performing Arts in Toronto, followed the actor’s appearance at a screening of Running The Sahara, a film he produced and narrated, and which hopes to gather support for clean water supply programs in Africa.

“I’ve seen solutions to these very real problems,” said the actor, referring to his work with the film, which screened as part of the Toronto Film Festival. “I’ve seen these things working, and it’s exciting for me.”

The OneXOne gala aimed to raise money to improve the lives of children in Canada and around the world. The event featured a performance by Shakira, and honored singer Wyclef Jean for his work in Haiti with the Yéle Haiti Foundation, as well as model Petra Nemcova, who was seriously injured in the devastating 2004 tsunami, and used her experience to raise funds for other tsunami survivors. Sarah Fergusson and actor Richard Gere were also honored.

“This event is so great, and it’s such a huge fundraiser,” said Matt Damon. “The people that show up… they’re there to make an impact.”

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are scheduled to remain in Africa for a week.

Damon Is Back for ONE X ONE

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 16:50:00 -0000

Written by Elizabeth Willoughby

Matt Damon will once again host ONEXONE's annual Difference Awards ceremony on September 9. Among those being recognized this year for their extraordinary efforts towards fighting child poverty and suffering will be Richard Gere, Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine and Petra Nemcova.

ONEXONE is a non-profit organization that supports children in Canada and abroad. Established less than three years ago, it has already raised over $5 million and created partnerships with major corporations and foundations.

The charity’s projects include providing first-nations kids with breakfast every day, and a ‘doctor exchange’ in which doctors from Haiti and Rwanda will train at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children; in turn, Toronto doctors will travel to Rwanda to repair the heart valves of children damaged by water-borne illnesses.

ONEXONE is also helping 12,000 children attend school in a Rwandan village, and has created a basket-weaving co-op. “If you’re trying to take people out of poverty,” says charity founder Joelle Berdugo Adler, “you have to give them tools, not handouts.”

The awards will be given at the gala in the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, where Shakira, Wyclef Jean of the Fugees, Nikki Yanofsky, the African Children’s Choir and others will perform. Wyclef Jean is also to be honoured for his Yéle Haiti Foundation (Cry Haiti), as are Charlie Engle, Ray Zahab and Kevin Lin, who ran cross the Sahara Dessert earlier this year to raise awareness for H2O Africa, the clean-water initiative founded by Damon and his partners at LivePlanet. Their documentary film of the run, which Damon narrates, will be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Clooney, Damon Keep Helping Africa

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 09:34:46 -0000

Written by Elizabeth Willoughby

The stars of “Ocean’s Thirteen” recently raised over $9 million, and within three weeks donated over $5 million of it to various charities in Sudan’s Darfur region. Most of the money was contributed to the Ocean’s stars’ humanitarian organization, Not On Our Watch, during the film’s premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. George Clooney and his co-stars created Not On Our Watch to bring global attention to the plight of the people of Darfur where over 200,000 people have died since 2003 in a rebellion between local rebels and the Sudanese government, and 2.5 million civilians have fled their homes.

The first donation by Not On Our Watch was $2.75 million to the International Rescue Committee. A further $750,000 went to Oxfam, $1 million to Save the Children, and now their latest donation of $1 million to the U.N. World Food Programme will deliver food and other necessities by helicopter to remote villages in Darfur.

Clooney was so impressed by the fundraising success of Not On Our Watch that he plans to turn every film festival into a charity drive for the cause. After filming a documentary about the genocide in Sudan, he has become a leading advocate for action. “There are only a few things we can do – protect them where we can, and provide food, water, health care and counseling,” he says.

Ocean’s co-star Matt Damon is also looking at other areas of Africa. Earlier this year he met a young girl in Zambia who, while they walked the two miles to the closest water source, said that she wanted to become a nurse. He writes, “It was clear to me at that moment that if this well were not there for her, she would never even be able to entertain the concept of planning for the future—she would have been trying to survive just for that day.”

After witnessing the extreme poverty and the value of clean drinking water in Zambia and South Africa, Damon decided to get involved in the Running the Sahara project.

Damon and colleagues, including Oscar™ winning filmmaker James Moll, started the charitable component of Running the Sahara, called H2O Africa, to raise awareness for clean water programs on the continent. Then they documented the Running the Sahara expedition, in which three men run over 4,300 miles (6,920 kilometres) from the Atlantic coast of Senegal, through Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Libya, to the Red Sea in Egypt. They run for 111 days.

Narrated by Damon, the film crew follows the runners crossing the desert, braving extreme elements and meeting the unique people of the Sahara who are struggling with immense daily challenges.
The World Health Organization estimates that the lack of safe drinking water kills almost 4,500 children per day, mostly under the age of five. The documentary will premiere this fall.

Look To The Stars News: H2O Africa

Matt Damon Writes On The Importance Of Giving Back

Related past articles

Matt Damon Launches New Charity Organization

Related past articles

Matt Damon Joins Entourage For Charity

Related past articles

Matt Damon's Sahara Documentary Aids African Water Crisis

Related past articles

Matt Damon Hosts ONE X ONE Gala In San Francisco

Related past articles

Matt Damon Hosts ONE X ONE Awards

Related past articles

Matt Damon Returns For ONE X ONE

Related past articles

Damon and Affleck Travel to Africa

Related past articles

Damon Is Back for ONE X ONE

Related past articles

Clooney, Damon Keep Helping Africa

Related past articles