The holidays often remind us what’s really important and brings out the kindness and generosity in people. In the season of giving, Alina Cho interviews one celebrity who doesn’t need the holiday reminder, actor Matt Damon. “When Matt Damon isn't busy shooting movies,” Cho says, “he's traveling the world, advocating for access to clean water.”

Things many of us take for granted, like faucets and toilets, are not so common to nearly one billion people around the world who struggle to find clean water. Damon began his quest to change this about six years ago, after a life changing trip to Africa. He met a 14-year-old girl in Zambia who made him realize that she would not have been able to go to school had someone not placed a well in her remote village. She would have been spending her days scavenging for water. "Every 20 seconds a kid under the age of five is dying, losing their life, because they do not have access to clean water,” Damon says. “And it just doesn't have to be that way."