Matt Damon, the Bourne trilogy star and all-around nice guy, is on a mission to bring a face to crisis in Africa. This past March, he visited South African border town Musina, where Zimbabwe refugees have fled, on behalf of Not on Our Watch (an organization George Clooney and Brad Pitt are also involved with) while of filming a movie with Morgan Freeman about Nelson Mandela called The Human Factor.
A long-time advocate for safe water issues, Damon has launched Water.org, a nonprofit that promises 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. After visiting project sites in Africa and Asia with Gary, I’ve seen the problem and the impact of safe water.” Damon said in a statement, “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.”
H20Africa and WaterPartners have merged into Water.org and Gary White, former executive director of WaterPartners is ecstatic about the new enterprise “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.”