When he's not spending time in front of, or behind the camera, actor Matt Damon is raising awareness about the water crisis that's affecting people across the globe.

In 2009, Damon teamed up with Gary White to launch Water.org, a charity dedicated to delivering safe water and sanitation to everyone. Today, the group has been able to empower over 16 million people, by providing access to clean water and hygiene.

So, where did Damon's drive to promote water equality for everyone come from? Put simply: his upbringing, the actor recently told CNBC.

"I think a lot of it came from my parents. My mother did take me to Mexico and to Guatemala and I did get to see extreme poverty up close as a teenager and that had a profound effect on me," the award-winning actor told CNBC's Tania Bryer at the World Economic Forum last week in Davos, Switzerland.

Damon explained how much of an impact travel has had on him growing up, as it gave him the chance to see how other people and nations lived.