How Jimmy Carter built houses for the poor until his final years

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “But our choice was to volunteer as Habitat workers, and that’s been a life-changing experience for us.” open image in gallery Former president Jimmy Carter works on August 6, 2001, at a construction site In September 1984, the Carters and a dozen other volunteers made their way to New York, where they worked on a six-story apartment building that gave safe and affordable housing to families. The work unknowingly sparked an annual tradition for the Carters to spend one week volunteering with Habitat for Humanity in a different location around the world in what became known as the Carter Work Projects. open image in gallery President Joseph Estrada and Carter cement concrete blocks as they build a wall for a house of Filipinos as part of Jimmy Carter’s Habitat for Humanity project in southern Philippines on March 22, 1999 Over the years, the Carters have volunteered in areas impacted by natural disasters or humanitarian crises. “That’s what Rosa and I have both tried to do.” open image in gallery Carter adjusts his eyeglasses next to his wife Rosalynn as they help to build houses for the poor during the Habitat for Humanity project in Chiang Mai province on 16 November 2009 The last Carter Work Project the former president participated in was in 2019.