“Every 5 seconds a child dies of hunger,” he says. “Each year we’re losing 6 million children. That’s more than the population of Manhattan and Paris combined. Today, some of us wake up to a full meal, while others wake up to nothing. We may live in different worlds, but we share the same planet. And what affects some of us now, may affect all of us tomorrow.

“Without action, climate change will cause widespread decreases in crop yields. For every one degree rise in temperature, we get a 10% decline in agriculture production. Water shortages threaten to reduce the global food supply by more than 10% in the next 25 years.”

Check out the video below:

We are truly seeing the rise of one of Hollywood’s greatest philanthropic leaders.

With his Parade article, Damon touched upon the act of giving, lessons learned from childhood, and how poor nations are struggling to cope with the demand for clean, fresh water. A bit of his words are below:

When I was a boy, my mom had a magnet on the refrigerator with a little picture of Gandhi along with a quote from him. It said: “No matter how insignificant what you do may seem, it is important that you do it.” As a child, I was raised to believe that, and to this day I do my best to live it.

Nowadays, sentimental magnetized credos have gone the way of nostalgia, and technology has forever changed the way younger generations communicate. But those are still really good words to live by.

I got an allowance of $5 a week when I was a kid, but I never spent much money on anything. My mother was involved in all sorts of causes, and when I was about 12, I started sending a little bit every month to one of them. I learned then that you find one thing that matters to you, and it changes your whole mind-set.

Here’s something that matters to me right now. Every 15 seconds, a child dies because of a lack of clean water and sanitation. I should probably repeat that: Every 15 seconds, a child dies because of a lack of clean water and sanitation. A billion people on our planet will never have a clean drink of water. There are 2.5 billion people in the world without toilet facilities. That kind of deprivation isn’t even on our radar in the U.S., but in Africa it’s the central preoccupation of many people’s lives. And the most devastating thing about it is that it takes so little to change it. Just $25 will give someone clean water for life—yes, just $25 will change someone’s future forever.

I’ve taken a lot of trips in the last few years to places like Africa and India and Haiti to try to learn what conditions are like. You can read about extreme poverty and possible solutions, but it’s really powerful when you get to meet the people and shake their hands and listen to their stories. I try to keep my trips short because my kids are so young that my wife, Lucy, can’t come. We don’t like to be separated, but we both feel it’s so important to learn about these things. There’s so much I don’t know. In the future, I know these trips are something we’ll do as a family.

Click here to continue reading Matt’s piece for Parade.

We’ve been talking about this one for awhile now — but last night’s season finale of Entourage featuring Matt Damon did not disappoint. In fact, we can’t remember the last time a charity got so much play on a television series at the hilarious expense of one of its spokespeople. Even Bono and LeBron James made appearances. ET recaps the plot saying:

In the episode, Damon tried to enlist the star power of Vince (played by Grenier) to travel on a mission to Ohio to help fight hunger amongst children. Work obligations prevented Vince from going on this trip, but Damon wouldn’t let him get off that easy. Showing true dedication to the charitable cause, Damon asked Vince to donate money in a sequence of phone calls and conversations that escalate at times to quite a heated exchange of words.

Damon is always funniest when he’s pissed off — and his interactions with Vince and the crew lead to some classic moments. The scene after the credits roll is particularly memorable with anger leading to crying and ending in apologies.

Hopefully, all of this exposure for ONEXONE — which works to improve the lives of children around the world — will pay off with donations and increased awareness of the org. The official site has even setup an “Entourage” page where you can see some behind-the-scenes videos of the actors lending their voices to the cause.

Kudos to Damon and company for jumping on board to have fun with the celebrity charity scene — and help make a difference at the same time. Check out a scene from last night’s Entourage finale below. [Warning: Strong language, tears.]

The extended version of the Matt Damon explosion we all saw early last week is now online — something every HBO On-Demand subscriber will tell you they’ve already seen. Whatever. I’m poor.

There’s obviously a bit more here than the tease we had last week which fully reveals that the whole thing was staged. Jeremy Piven finally adds some hilarious input as well.

Wait for the last line.

A new video has surfaced on YouTube featuring Matt Damon losing his cool with Adrian Grenier during a PSA shoot for the organization OneXOne. It’s been known for months now that Damon would have a guest appearance on Entourage promoting his clean water organization — but we’re not exactly sure if this is part of that scene, a funny outtake, or something more serious.

Of course, many of you are rolling your eyes at this moment — simply because this isn’t the first time Damon has pulled off pissed off. Back in 2006, the 38-year-old actor made a scene at the end of Jimmy Kimmel Live when he was cut-off from appearing at the end. It was hilarious — and so believable, that some people thought it was real.

Anyways, in this clip, we see some of the actors from Entourage in the background — including Jeremy Piven (who appears very much in character) and Kevin Connolly. Grenier keeps stumbling over his lines for the PSA and Damon keeps getting frustrated and eventually blows up. The only thing that’s odd is that at one point Damon calls Grenier by his real name — and not his character’s. And Adrian asks at one point if he should do it as himself or as Vince.

Anyways, we’re going with well done, but fake. What do you think? [Warning: Strong language]

The Clinton Global Initiative is always an annual highlight for witnessing pledges of money to help disadvantaged people and support projects for change.  Yesterday, at the launch of the fifth annual three-day meeting, Matt Damon took to the podium to announce that his charity Water.org will commit $2 million to provide 50,000 people in Haiti with safe water and sanitation over the next three years. Additionally, Water.org has also launched a social media campaign so that anyone can participate in meeting the water challenge in Haiti.

“The situation in Haiti is extreme – it’s the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and nearly half of its people don’t have access to clean water,” said Water.org Co-Founder Gary White. “Expanding Water.org’s programming to Haiti will help people break the cycle of disease and poverty.”

The social media campaign Water.org is leveraging is pretty slick — integrating with Facebook and Twitter to help spread the word and raise cash. It also features a “points” system that rewards you anytime you invite a friend to the cause or make a donation; beyond that, we’re not sure what those points might be good for except peace of mind.

Check out a video of Damon making the announcement after the jump.

As we know from countless stories on the Razz and, most recently, an exclusive interview with Esquire, Matt Damon is a guy that’s passionate about lending his fame to getting clean water to people in need. So it comes as no surprise that the actor made sure the New York premiere for his new film, The Informant, benefited the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The NRDC has long recognized dirty water as the world’s greatest health risk — and has worked with a variety of organizations supported by Damon to bring change and relief to countless people. To find out how you can help, visit the NRDC donations page here.

Photos: Matt Damon with NRDC board member Alan Horn, the president of Warner Brothers. | Photo Credit: Anthony Clark/NRDC

You may have spied the latest issue of Esquire on newsstands sporting a smiling Matt Damon. The Oscar-winner has a new movie called The Informant! out — but Esquire’s exposé doesn’t dabble long on Hollywood, choosing instead to focus on Damon’s charity work; particularly with bringing clean water to people living in third world countries. As he states in the article, it’s exactly as he would like it.

One aspect of the article that’s revealing is how Damon’s first clean water charity that he founded, H20 Africa, was scrapped in favor of merging with activist Gary White of WaterPartners. Back in July, the two announced a new effort called Water.org that would combine both charities and leverage Damon’s star-power to help make a difference. H20 Africa had run its course as a charity that actually only funneled money to other charities — limiting how well Damon could keep tabs on how the money was being used. According to the article, there were also warnings that the charity’s chairman “might have been in it more to give himself access to Damon than to give children access to water.”

Damon’s decision to merge H20 Africa under the guidance of a guy like Gary White gives you some great insight into just how committed the actor is to making a difference. As a result, Water.org’s chief community manager anticipates that this coming year’s Web donations will increase fourfold. Revenue is expected to triple from $5.5 million in 2008 to $15.5 million in 2011. That’s small change to some other big-time non-profits out there, but if Damon and White have shown anything, it’s that effectively run charities can make a huge difference with small amounts. Having a celebrity fully vested and passionate about the cause helps too.

Check out the full article here.

As we’ve mentioned before, the film features the dramatic reading of letters and documents written by various characters in America’s history, both known and unknown, but the readings are performed by familiar faces like Josh Brolin, Danny Glover, Viggo Mortensen, Morgan Freeman, Rosario Dawson and Marisa Tomei, among many others. The film also features a variety of musical performances including Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, Jackson Browne and John Legend.

Damon has taken on the task of reading the Declaration of Independence. How does he plan to make it interesting? “You just read it,” the actor-writer-producer told a panel audience yesterday. “Seriously. It is an incredible document. I think people either forget about it or have been taught it too early in their lives. It’s a document worth reading and rereading every single year because it’s the principles in that document that we should be loyal to and fight for and struggle for, rather than whichever government is in power.”

Damon does so much good work internationally, and it’s terrific to see him come home and gather people to together to tell these important stories.

The film will air on The History Channel later this year so in the meantime check out ThePeopleSpeak.com. It’s hard not be moved by Zinn’s vision of democracy in America brought to life.

Photo: PR Photos

Matt Damon is taking his mission to bring fresh water to developing nations to yet another level.

The 38-year-old actor announced that he’s joining forces with with Gary White, WaterPartners executive director and co-founder, to launch a new charity called Water.org. (How much do you think that domain cost?) The new site will will leverage grassroots awareness-building expertise and nearly two decades of demonstrated innovation and success in the sector to help the nearly 890 million people without safe water and the more than 2.5 billion people without safe sanitation.

“Every 15 seconds, a child in the developing world dies from water-related disease. After visiting project sites in Africa and Asia with Gary, I’ve seen the problem and the impact of safe water.” Damon said, “As a clear leader in the sector at delivering innovative and sustainable solutions for those in need, WaterPartners was the natural choice with whom to work to truly affect lasting change.”

For more information — or to help lend a hand — check out Water.org here.

Photo: Matt Damon in India last week visiting water sites with his new philanthropy Water.org