Hollywood actor Matt Damon has credited Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus’s pioneering microcredit model in Bangladesh as an inspiration for expanding access to safe water and sanitation worldwide.
Damon, who plays Odysseus in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, made the remarks in a video posted on Sunday by American Instagram influencer Ted Zhar, creator of the viral “What Do You Do for a Living?” series.
Damon co-founded Water.org with water expert Gary White in 2009. Its WaterCredit model adapts Yunus’s microfinance principles, helping low-income households secure affordable loans for water connections and improved sanitation.
Damon previously said White had applied Yunus’s ideas to the water sector. Rather than generating direct income, the loans save families the time and money spent securing water, freeing resources for work and other needs.
Yunus founded Grameen Bank in 1983 to serve people excluded from conventional banking, particularly women. Their microcredit model earned him and the bank the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.
Damon founded H2O Africa Foundation in 2006 and met White in 2008 at the Clinton Global Initiative. Their organisations merged in 2009 to form Water.org.
