Matt Damon's Charitable Act Helping a Young Girl in Africa Reminded Him of Teen Years with Ben Affleck. Here's How (Exclusive)

Nicholas RiceSat, June 13, 2026 at 12:30 PM UTC

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Matt Damon in 2026, Ben Affleck (left) and Matt Damon (right) in 1997.Credit: Rosalind O'Connor/NBC via Getty; Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty -

Matt Damon recalls how a charitable act helping a young girl in Africa reminded him of himself and best friend Ben Affleck when they were teens in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE

Damon and Affleck have been close since they grew up just blocks away from each other in Cambridge, Mass.

The Odyssey star co-founded Water.org, a nonprofit that provides safe water access to those living in poverty, decades ago

Matt Damon saw a lot of himself and best friend Ben Affleck in a young girl he helped during a charitable expedition.

Back in 1990, the actor, 55, and Gary White founded Water.org, a nonprofit that provides safe water access to those living in poverty.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Damon recalls one of his first water collections with the organization, saying, "I went with a 14-year-old girl. I was waiting for her when she came home from school, we picked up our jerry cans, and we walked to this well, which was about a mile from her house, and we talked. I really felt a connection to this kid, because she reminded me so much of Ben [Affleck] and I at that age."

"She was talking about how she was going to get out. We were in this rural village in Zambia, and she's like, 'I'm getting out of here. I'm going to Lusaka. I'm going to be a nurse. I'm going to the big city,' and it was the way Ben and I would talk about, 'We're going to New York. We're going to be actors. We're getting out of Boston,' " he continues.

"She was basically just like every 14-year-old should be — she had these big hopes and dreams, and she was looking forward to the rest of her life," adds Damon, whose friendship with Affleck, 53, began as the Good Will Hunting costars grew up just blocks away from each other in Cambridge, Mass.

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Ben Affleck (left) and Matt Damon (right) in 2026, Matt Damon (left) and Ben Affleck (right) in 'Good Will Hunting.'Credit: Christopher VICTORIO / AFP via Getty; Miramax/Courtesy Everett

While the young girl's aspirations deeply touched Damon, he said the overall work being done by Water.org also did the same.

"It wasn't until I was driving away that I realized, had someone not sunk this borehole near her house, she wouldn't be in school. She would be spending her entire day trying to get water for her family, and she wouldn't be dreaming of becoming a nurse and being a frontline healthcare worker, contributing to the economic engine of her country and doing all the things that she was going to go on and do," he tells PEOPLE.

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These thoughts reiterated for Damon that water scarcity isn't just a cause for "pointless death," but also "that stifling of human potential."

"That's so heartbreaking, and ... it was the first time I was learning about this, and really understanding how big an issue it was," says The Odysseystar. "I still talk about that and think about that all the time."

Gary White (left) and Matt Damon (right).Credit: Craig Barritt/Getty

For decades, Water.org has changed the way water is provided around the globe. The nonprofit recently launched Get Blue, a community created in partnership with Amazon, Starbucks, Gap and Ecolab to make it so everyday actions like shopping, sharing and donating can provide safe water for those most in need.

"There's over two billion people in the world who don't have access to clean water, so that's one in four of us," Damon explains. "A question that we're constantly getting at Water.org is, 'Hey, what can I do to help?' and this is the best answer we've come up with."

"We've got these incredible partners, these companies with massive platforms, that are getting creative about how they can help us maximize our impact through interactions with their customers, so anybody can have an impact and help somebody who's dealing with this issue," he continues.

Adds White, "It's about connection and action, and it's important that people connect to what is really one of humanity's greatest challenges, the simple fact that people don't have safe water. I mean, next to the air that we breathe, the water that we drink is everything, it's life. And two billion of us struggle to get that every day. It's incredibly solvable. We don't need a miracle cure."

Through the initiative, Damon stars in a promo video, attempting a new career as a rapper — The Nomad (which is just Damon spelled backwards) — to educate about safe water access.

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