Matt Damon hopes his daughters follow in his philanthropic footsteps
Matt Damon said earlier this year that he wants to spend less time on movies and more time on his charity, Water.org, in 2017. According to the organization’s website, Damon and co. are working to help the 663 million people for whom safe drinking water isn’t readily available and the 2.4 billion who don’t have access to a toilet.
In a video for People magazine shot at a Water.org event Wednesday, the Cambridge native said that when he travels to areas of the world where young children have insufficient access to clean water and sanitation, it’s hard not to think about his four daughters.
“When you’re out there seeing it — these are kids who are the same age as my kids, and its impossible not to think about your own children in a situation like that,” Damon said at the event, which took place on World Water Day in New York City. “And then you think about the number of kids who are dying. Every 90 seconds, a child under the age of 5 dies because of lack of access to clean water and sanitation. These are things that we solved in the West a hundred years ago. I mean, could you imagine if we cured cancer tomorrow, and in 100 years people were still dying from it? It would be completely unconscionable.”
In terms of whether his daughters would follow in his philanthropic footsteps, Damon told People, “They better!”
“Depending on their age, they are in various stages of awareness,” he said. “They’ve been very fortunate to travel a lot in their short lives and so they’ve seen a lot. I think that’s a real gift because I think once you can really see these things with your own eyes, it becomes impossible not to start thinking about how to engage.”
