Between washing our dishes, watering our lawn, showering, doing our laundry or just cooling ourselves off from a hot day, the ability to easily access water is something most of us take for granted. But stepping outside our comfort zone to realize that the ability for many to do what we take for granted isn’t so easy.

More than 770 million people worldwide lack access to safe water at home. Nearly 32% of the world’s population lacks improved sanitation needs, and those living in rural areas are three times more likely to have to walk long distances to access safe water, with women being 62% more likely to be the bearer of that responsibility, spending a combined 200 million hours each day seeking water for their families.

In a direct response to this crisis, the World Medical Association issued a mission statement on water and health.

“An adequate supply of fresh (i.e., clean potable and uncontaminated) water is essential for individual and public health, as well as being a social determinant of health. It is central to living a life in dignity and health and upholding human rights. Many individuals, families and communities do not have access to such a supply, and even in those places where there is an abundance of fresh water, it is threatened by pollution, activities such as industry and waste, inadequate or ineffective sanitation and other negative forces.”

Answering that call to arms is water.org, founded in 2009 by Gary White and Golden Globe winner Matt Damon when they merged their two respective companies, WaterPartners and H20Africa. Water.org‘s approach is centered on four key components: forging partnerships with local partner organizations in the countries it serves, involving the community at each stage of the project, selecting technology appropriate to the local community and their particular situation, and integrating all projects with health and hygiene education.

“I think as I got further into my career, you become better at protecting yourself,” Damon testified during an HFPA interview in 2010 in regard to balancing his professional and socially responsible life. “I think you have a limited amount of, call it celebrity capital or whatever, that you can deploy to something that does actually matter to you. So, I’m trying to put all that into things like Not On Our Watch and in particular, water.org which we’re hoping to grow exponentially in the next decade.

In choosing to spend his capital on bringing clean water to impoverished nations around the world, Damon, along with his partner White, has found creative ways to raise funds and awareness for their undertaking. In both 2015 and 2016 at the Sundance Film Festival, they spoke about their partnership with Stella Artois to launch the “Buy a Lady a Drink” campaign. They sold a limited-edition collection of decorated glass goblets representing water-poor countries. When you bought a lady a chalice, it provided a woman with five years of clean water. 

“You cannot solve poverty without solving water and sanitation,” he said, explaining that when you can provide water for a family in a water-poor country, it becomes life-changing for the family.

In an interview with Esquire magazine at that time, Damon recalled previous visits to some of these deprived countries. “We were sitting in a slum, and we were doing the math on how much these people were paying for water. It’s disproportionally higher than what the middle class pays, or the water going into the five-star hotels. It’s just insane what these people pay. It’s that first gallon of water. It’s life or death.”

In lieu of that, Damon and White initiated a program called Water Credit, where, expanding on the concept of microfinancing, they would loan consumers $75 to create pipelines from water sources directly to their homes. With a payback rate of nearly 99%, the locals used the extra time they saved from seeking water to managing new personal business for themselves.

By proving to local commercial banks this system had merit, the two discovered those same banks responded to the sourcing of commercial capital and began their own loan programs in places such as India. They are also working with partners across East Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia helping more than 43 million people get access to the safe water or sanitation solutions they need to survive and thrive.

“A child is dying every 15 seconds because they don’t have access to clean water,” Damon said at the Sundance unveiling. “This is going to take a lot of innovation as this is a very big problem.” Having four daughters of his own, he notes that it is hard not to see other kids as his own. “It’s incumbent upon me to do whatever I can within my sphere of influence to help.”

Having so far empowered more than 43 million people in 17 countries with access to safe water and sanitation, water.org is providing a beacon of hope and opportunity.