Matt Damon on Ellen today

I just happened to sit down on the couch for a minute this afternoon and tuned in to watch the Ellen DeGeneres Show.  Matt Damon was on promoting his new movie, but what I found really interesting is a charity he co-founded:  Water.org.  He went into how it got started and what they do - a donation of just $25 can give one person water for their lifetime.  There are about 1 billion people drinking water that's not clean.  That's billion with a B.  Some of the statistics they provide:

The health and economic impacts of today’s global water crisis are staggering.

• More than 3.5 million people die each year from water-related disease; 84 percent are children. Nearly all deaths, 98 percent, occur in the developing world.
• Lack of access to clean water and sanitation kills children at a rate equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing every four hours.
• Lack of sanitation is the world’s biggest cause of infection.
• Millions of women and children spend several hours each day collecting water from distant, often polluted sources. This is time not spent working at an income-generating job, caring for family members, or attending school.
• 443 million school days are lost each year due to water-related illness.

Apparently, you get a reusable water bottle when you make a contribution of $25 or more. Ellen gave one to everyone in her audience today. Cool.  I'm going to have to get one now :)