The H2O Africa Foundation was an

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

founded by

Matt Damon Matthew Paige Damon (; born October 8, 1970) is an American actor, film producer, and screenwriter. Ranked among ''Forbes'' most bankable stars, the films in which he has appeared have collectively earned over $3.88 billion at the North Ameri ...

to raise awareness about clean water initiatives in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. It was part of the Running the Sahara expedition and documentary project undertaken by Damon,

James Moll James Moll is an American director and producer of film documentaries and television documentaries. His documentary work has earned him an Academy Award, two Emmys, and a Grammy. Moll's production company, Allentown Productions Inc., has been ...

LivePlanet LivePlanet was a production company founded in 2000, and was known for television and new media platforms. History It was created by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Chris Moore and Sean Bailey. Affleck and Damon ended their film production deal in lat ...

, and the Independent Producers Alliance. In July 2009, the H2O Africa Foundation merged with

WaterPartners WaterPartners International was an American nonprofit developmental aid organization tasked with the specific purpose of providing safe drinking water and sanitation to people in developing countries. Founded in 1990, it has since provided safe d ...

to form

Water.org Water.org is an international nonprofit organization that helps people living in poverty get access to safe water and improved sanitation through affordable financing. This organization was founded by Matt Damon and Gary White. Water.org current ...

, an organization co-founded by Matt Damon and Gary White of

History

When

and his producing partners Marc Joubert,

Larry Tanz Larry Tanz is an American entertainment industry executive. He has held executive positions with AOL Time Warner, and previously served as president and CEO of LivePlanet, as well as the president and CEO of Vuguru. He is currently the VP of Glob ...

, and Keith Quinn were starting to work on planning the expedition and film for Running the Sahara, Damon had the idea of starting a charitable initiative. It was informally launched in the spring of 2006, and Richard Klopp was hired as launch executive director. When film financier IPA came on board the foundation was officially named H2O Africa and was announced on September 10, 2006 during a ONEXONE event at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

. It was started as the charitable arm of the Running the Sahara film project, with the goal of raising money and awareness for organizations such as the

United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...

Clean Water Initiative, Living Water International, and the

Millennium Promise Millennium Promise, or The Millennium Promise Alliance, Inc., is a non-profit organization incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware, dedicated to ending extreme poverty within our lifetime. Its flagship initiative is the Millennium Vi ...

project. On May 29, 2007, H2O Africa announced a new partnership with the

Ryan's Well Foundation Ryan Hreljac (born 30 May 1991) is a Canadian activist, who established the Ryan's Well Foundation to bring water to people in developing countries. He has received numerous awards for his work, and he was the youngest person ever to be bestowed ...

Projects

H2O Africa was involved with the following projects: *Global Youth Initiative For Clean Water: H2O Africa is assisting the Ryan's Well Foundation in fundraising for this project by matching donations dollar-for-dollar. The objective of this project is to improve health, well-being, and sanitation at 15 to 20 schools in the Lira and Oyam districts in the Lango sub-region of

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

. In addition, the project will also provide hygiene and environmental sanitation training at 90 schools in the two districts, rehabilitate or construct 25 clean water sources, and construct 10 ventilated improved pit (VIP)

latrine A latrine is a toilet or an even simpler facility that is used as a toilet within a sanitation system. For example, it can be a communal trench in the earth in a camp to be used as emergency sanitation, a hole in the ground ( pit latrine), or ...

s. Construction is expected to begin in September 2007. *Route Nations: H2O Africa, in partnership with the

UNDP The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...

, is constructing a water tower and two water fountains in the village of Néré Walo, Mauritania. As of August 2007, the project is nearly completed. *Millennium Village: H2O Africa is partnering with

to raise funds for the Millennium Village project in

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; french: Tombouctou; Koyra Chiini: ); tmh, label=Tuareg, script=Tfng, ⵜⵏⴱⴾⵜ, Tin Buqt a city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. The town is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrativ ...

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mal ...

. The project involves the fostering of initiatives designed to improve the local economy in the fields such as

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of hea ...

and infrastructure, nutrition services, and

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...

.Millennium Promise - Interventions
retrieved 4 Aug 2007 As of August 2007, the project has received 22% of its $1,750,000 funding goal. *Central African Republic Well Project: H2O Africa is joining with Living Water International to construct 20 new wells in the

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

, as well as providing 5 years' worth of support for those wells. The project also aims to help improve community management of water resources over this time period. H2O Africa has committed $100,000 to the project, as well as pledging to match an additional $100,000 in donations. The organization has collected 72% of its funding goal as of August 2007. *L'Desh Fresh: Sought by millions around the world, it finally hit the American market in 2009. Parasites, traces of urine, dirt, and arsenic work together to create the natural texture of L'Desh Fresh: The World's Most Authentic Drinking Water. But where has it been hiding? As it makes its debut, people are asking just that. Except that it's a joke. Well, kind of. The L'Desh Fresh campaign was created by the award-winning Kansas City marketing and advertising agency, Sullivan Higdon & Sink (SHS), for the KC-based international non-profit,

. For nearly two decades, Water.org has been working to provide people in developing countries with safe drinking water and sanitation. SHS stepped up to help to raise awareness and support for this mission, pro-bono.

Charitable partners

* ONEXONE * Renaissance Charitable Gift Fund * ONE Campaign *

A Glimmer of Hope Foundation The A Glimmer of Hope Foundation was founded by Texas-based philanthropists Philip Berber and Donna Berber to reduce extreme poverty in rural Ethiopia. In 2010, Philip and Donna were ranked #7 by ''Barron's'' in its list of '25 Best Givers' in t ...

History

Projects

Charitable partners

See also

References

External links