Matt Damon’s Daughters Are Schooling Him on Water Conservation
March 22 is World Water Day, something that saturates the life of Matt Damon. In 2009, his organization, H20 Africa, partnered with Gary White to form Water.org. Since then, the organization has brought clean drinking water to more than three million people in developing countries.
Damon, who is 46 and sporting his natural salt-and-pepper hair, is at the Oculus in downtown Manhattan, promoting Water.org’s campaign with Stella Artois called Buy a Lady a Drink; each limited-edition chalice sold equals five years of clean drinking water for communities in need.
And yes, Damon is very glad to be rid of the 700 hair extensions that formed the man bun he sported while filming and promoting The Great Wall — which took a whopping 12 hours to put in.
“F**k that bun. That was so brutal,” Damon tells Yahoo Beauty.
Now, he’s back to the business of helping to save the world, one WaterCredit microloan at a time. Globally, roughly one in ten people lacks access to safe drinking water, and the task falls mostly to women and girls to find it and bring it home.
Damon, with wife Lucy, has four daughters: Alexia, Isabella, Gia, and Stella. “That’s one of the reasons it feels very personal. It’s very hard to go into some of these communities and not see the faces of your children on the faces of the people you meet,” he says. “As you watch the hardships they’re enduring, you imagine your own children in that situation. That’s what keeps the fires stoked.”
Damon the Oscar winner and White the global water expert have an enduring charity partnership; it’s partly because Damon is passionate about the subject of clean water and sanitation and has met with world leaders to talk about it. He’s fluidly addressed the topic at the Clinton Global Initiative. “I made one very smart decision, which was to partner with the preeminent expert in this space,” says Damon, of White. “Everything came from this partnership. It’s a fascinating subject.”
“He’s become one of the world’s water experts,” says White. “Matt has come to be the person people turn to when thinking about this issue.”
Damon has faith, seeing his own children, that the environment is top of mind with the next generation.
“My kids were already pretty good about that. If kids are over at the house for a sleepover and they brush their teeth, they turn the water off. I used to just let it run,” he says. “Millennials, because the world is so much more connected, they’re far more aware of these issues than I was. And I was pretty dialed in. I was fortunate enough to travel to Guatemala and rural Mexico as a teenager and see some of those things.”
“My kids were already pretty good about that. If kids are over at the house for a sleepover and they brush their teeth, they turn the water off. I used to just let it run,” he says. “Millennials, because the world is so much more connected, they’re far more aware of these issues than I was. And I was pretty dialed in. I was fortunate enough to travel to Guatemala and rural Mexico as a teenager and see some of those things.”
So what’s the longest he’s ever gone without a shower? “That’s a good question. When would that have been? It would probably have been at some point in college and I forgot for a week or so. That’s a men versus women issue. We’re pretty gross at that age,” says Damon.
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