Matt Damon Meets With African Refugees on Behalf of Clooney Crew

In South Africa filming Clint Eastwood's Nelson Mandela movie, Damon takes time to visit Zimbabwean refugee centers

By Natalie Finn Mar 04, 2009 12:00 AMTags
Matt DamonAlexander Tomargo / Getty Images

Count Matt Damon among the celebs whose worldview doesn't start and end in Hollywood.

On Tuesday, the Bourne Ultimatum star took time off from filming to visit with Zimbabwean refugees in the South African border town of Musina, part of a humanitarian mission on behalf of Not on Our Watch, the nonprofit advocacy group he started along with George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Don Cheadle.

Damon is in South Africa shooting The Human Factor, Clint Eastwood's upcoming film about Nelson Mandela. Morgan Freeman plays the apartheid-fighting nation builder. 

Close to 3 million people have fled Zimbabwe, where a crumbling infrastructure, economy-crippling inflation and political corruption have led to widespread poverty, hunger and disease. A recent cholera epidemic has killed more than 3,800 people and infected some 83,000, according to the United Nations News Centre.

Damon's pal Clooney recently returned to the U.S. from a trip to Sudan-bordering Chad, where he bunked with New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and toured the area, which has become a haven for Africans fleeing the genocide in war-torn Darfur.