Matt Damon created a charity to accompany their filmmaking expedition in Africa, which gets under way this month.
- October 19, 2006
AceShowbiz -
Matt Damon makes it good with his celebrity status, helping to launch a new initiative aimed to help bringing clean water to Africa.
The actor went to the Sahara Desert solely to scout locations for the upcoming "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. In fact, he was touched by the lack of safe water sources in the country.
And so, Damon along with the production team for the upcoming documentary, set up H2OAfrica, a nonprofit organization dedicated to publicize the water crisis in Africa and to raise funds to develop clean, sustainable sources of water.
"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. Thus with the H2O Africa, the star "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."
