Matt Damon: Buy A Lady A Drink & Create Safe Water

Hollywood actor-turned-philanthropist Matt Damon urges you to buy a lady a drink.

And no – before you misjudge him for being sleazy or sexist, he’s actually part of an initiative for Stella Artois to raise money and awareness for his non-profit organisation, water.org.

Dressed casually in a plain t-shirt against a white back-drop, Damon talks openly about the cause that he supports and why he believes that water shortage in developing countries is a disproportionate problem that mainly affects women.

Often living in patriarchal societies, women face the brunt of tradition and are required to walk large distances to collect water for their families.

His visible distress and disbelief at the difficulties some women face is notable in the campaign created by Mother London and 1^st Ave Machine.

By teaming up with Stella Artois, Damon is able to attract a new clientele to his charity – the beer drinkers.

To tackle the problem, water.org has introduced limited edition Chalices – hand-designed in Kenya, Peru and Haiti – which can be purchased here at $13.00.

Each sale will provide five years’ worth of clean drinking water to women in developing countries.

A Chalice-inspired art installation (above) also helped to promote the initiative. Using almost 600 of the hand-designed glasses and measuring four metres high, the glass installation rotates at speed to create a stop motion-inspired animation about what effect access to water can have on a woman's life.

As Damon says, “it’s important for us all to leave a mark” – something that he hopes to do by pioneering safe drinking water to women and communities around the world.

To find out more the initiate, visit the website.