You no doubt know Hollywood celebrity Matt Damon for his leading roles in blockbusters ranging from “Good Will Hunting” to “The Bourne Identity”. What you may not know is that he’s also one of the co-founders of Water.org, a charity focused on empowering families through water accessibility, or that he quietly visited Jakarta and some villages in Central Java last week to check out some of the great work the Water.org team in Indonesia is doing for himself.
https://www.facebook.com/komidaofficial/posts/2204542816252989
Damon arrived in Jakarta on July 3 and paid a visit to the headquarters of the Mitra Dhuafa Cooperative (Komida), which works with Water.org to administer a micro-financing program called WaterCredit that provides families with small, flexible loans to cover the upfront costs of connecting their homes to piped water and installing toilets. He was joined by other senior members of Water.org including CEO and co-founder Gary White.
Soon after, Damon and the rest of his team traveled to Batang in Central Java to see the work that Komida was doing at the village level.
https://www.facebook.com/komidaofficial/posts/2204550192918918
The actor and his “entourage” visited Batang’s Denasri Kulon Village to meet with the local Komida team and were also invited into the home of Ibu Wanuti, a Komida member who had taken advantage of the WaterCredit program to finance improved clean water access for her family. According to a press release from Komida, Wanuti and her three children previously had to queue for a long time each day in order to bathe and use the toilet in a public bathroom but now had their own family bathroom.
The team also visited a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in Batang’s West Selopanjang village before traveling to neighboring Kendal district, where they saw the work being done by BPR BKK Kendal, another community-based loan program run in cooperation with Water.org.
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It seems Damon left Indonesia soon after his village tour was over, his coming and going almost as stealthy as that of Jason Bourne. But the work of Water.org and the organization’s team and partners here in Indonesia goes on — it may not be the most glamorous of causes, but clear they’re having a very real impact on people’s lives here.
You can click here for more info on Water.org and their work in Indonesia.
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