In 2006, Matt Damon started nonprofit after filming for ‘Running the Sahara.’ 20 years later, it has grown into one of the biggest firms, helping thousands across the world |
Matt Damon, alongside filmmakers Keith White, Evan McNicol, and ultra-marathoner Charlie Engle, joined hands in 2006 to start a nonprofit firm. To address the global water crisis, the actor started the organization to raise awareness about communities that are going through the water crisis across the world. The idea itself, however, came to him after he spent time in a Zambian village while filming for the documentary ‘Running the Sahara.’
In 2006, Matt Damon started a nonprofit to raise awareness about the water crisis
Matt Damon had been attached to the project ‘Running the Sahara’ as a producer, which was being developed on the expedition in which three runners, Charlie Engle, Ray Zahab, and Kevin Lin, ran more than 4,300 miles across the entire length of the Sahara Desert in 111 days. During the filming, as per the organization’s official website, Damon and the film’s team were staying in a Zambian village, which inherently ended up becoming the catalyst for the nonprofit’s beginnings. He had been working with DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) at the time and had been visiting families and villages afflicted because of the issue of not having regular access to clean water.
Matt Damon’s company started in 2006, and since then has been going strong in raising funds for people around the world. (Instagram)
This is what gave birth to H2O Africa, which started with the aim of raising awareness about the lack of clean water across the African subcontinent.A statement from the page read, “Matt spent time with families in a Zambian village. They lacked access to water and toilets. Matt’s exposure to their daily lives inspired a commitment to helping solve the global water crisis. In 2006, he founded H20 Africa Foundation to raise awareness about safe water initiatives on the continent.”
Matt Damon merged his company
The actor had been doing some good work with his organization; however, around 2009, he opted to merge his company with an already established firm that was led by Gary White, an engineer from Kansas City. The two had met while they were attending the annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York in 2008. White had already established himself as a well-known water and sanitation expert. The two started working together, and Water.org was born.
Matt Damon put in a lot of effort to help the organization grow
The two were working together to help the nonprofit grow as much as they could, and throughout all of this, Damon and White both travelled the world to meet with communities that were heavily affected by not having access to clean water regularly. Another statement from the website added, “Matt and Gary have traveled the world to observe, learn, and improve upon the smart solutions they’ve created to empower people with safe water. In the early years of Water.org, a visit to Haiti fueled Matt’s passion and motivation to change the future for millions of people around the world.”During his time in Haiti, Damon recounted an incident when he had asked a 13-year-old girl about what she was going to do now that she had water and extra time, and her reply was that she was going to play. Damon had been heavily affected by that, adding, “And it just buckled my knees because of this idea that this kid hadn’t had time to play. She hadn’t had time to be a 13-year-old girl. It’s these incalculable kinds of impact that this can have when you bring somebody access [to water and sanitation] like that.”Now, 20 years later, the organization has grown into a global space that works on helping people across the world and providing solutions to their issues with not having access to clean water. Damon’s idea, which started while filming a documentary in the Sahara Desert, ended up becoming one of his biggest and most important philanthropic efforts.
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