Damon's Good Water Hunting
Matt Damon is taking a cue from a few of his Ocean's Eleven teammates.
Like George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Don Cheadle before him, Damon is lending his star power to help Africans in need.
The 36-year-old Oscar winner has announced the launch of H2O Africa, a nonprofit organization dedicated to publicizing the water crisis in Africa and to raise funds to develop clean, sustainable sources of water.
Damon decided to support the project after a trip to the Sahara Desert scouting locations for Running the Sahara, a documentary he's narrating about three long-distance runners' dangerous bid to become the first humans in history to run coast to coast across the fabled desert. The two-and-a-half-month odyssey is the equivalent of two marathons a day spanning a distance of 4,000 miles across six different countries.
The doc aims to focus attention on a region that receives less than five inches of rainfall a year and where potable drinking water is scarce. The lack of safe water sources contributes to malnutrition, disease and unsanitary living conditions, which lead to the deaths of an estimated 4,500 children every day.
"I saw firsthand the effects of one of the largest public health issues of our time—the world water crisis which is at its worst in Africa," Damon said.
H20 Africa hopes to raise enough money to provide wells and water purification systems to the affected communities, especially around schools to encourage parents to bring their kids to get an education.
The initiative is similar to the Jay-Z-fronted Water for Life campaign. The hip-hopster has joined forces with the United Nations and MTV to install 10 water pumps in Africa. His efforts will be chronicled Diary of Jay-Z: Water for Life, a documentary premiering Nov. 24 on MTV.
For his part, Damon began getting more involved in Africa issues last May after spending a week on the continent, including a trek to Zambia organized by Bono's One campaign, when the actor visited AIDS clinics, orphanages, schools and health centers.
Aside from H20 Africa, Damon cohosted a celebrity auction with Brad Pitt and noted economist Jeffrey Sachs at last month's Toronto Film Festival that raised $1.8 million for two African-aiding groups, Canada's One X One and the U.S.-based Millennium Promise.
"It's truly mind-boggling, and outrageous, and unnecessary," Damon told the Boston Globe at the fest. "But beyond the issue of just surviving, it's the whole issue of the quality of someone's life."
Perhaps Damon was also inspired by his new fatherhood. In June, the actor and wife Luciana welcomed their first child, a daughter named Isabella.
Running the Sahara does not yet have a release date, but will likely hit theaters next year. Damon, meanwhile, is garnering some of the best critical acclaim of his career for his latest big-screen turn as a mob mole in Martin Scorsese's box-office hit The Departed. Damon also recently wrapped filming in Los Angeles on Ocean's Thirteen and is now in production on The Bourne Ultimatum, the third installment in the smash spy franchise.
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