Good Sports: Flushed with joy
Hollywood actors rarely talk about toilets, neither their own nor anyone else’s. But Matt Damon can’t avoid the subject—he has made it his mission to help poor people around the world gain access to sanitation and clean water. He spent four days in India last month, visiting villages in Tamil Nadu and slums in Bangalore to see the impact of Water.org, a nonprofit organization he co-founded in 2009 with engineer Gary White.
As The New York Times reported, the organization has helped 500,000 people in 11 states get microloans, so they can build toilets, tube wells, and hand pumps. Damon met some of the beneficiaries of his charity and saw how important it was for women to have access to a private toilet.
“To hear that they no longer have to leave the house when the sun goes down and walk out for open defecation because there is no toilet,” he said. “It’s very emotional to talk about these very, very real changes. It is sheer joy.”
Enjoyed reading Khabar magazine? Subscribe to Khabar and get a full digital copy of this Indian-American community magazine.
