After the White House

Former president Jimmy Carter has helped build houses for the poor with Habitat for Humanity

Jimmy Carter, who was president from 1977 to 1981, has spent many years working closely with a charity called Habitat for Humanity. It brings together groups of volunteers to build houses for families who don't have a clean, safe, affordable place to live. Every year, Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, spend one week building Habitat houses for poor families in countries around the world. The couple has helped build at least 25 houses.

Carter, 85, promotes human rights and supports the poor worldwide through his own charity, the Carter Center, as well. In 2002 he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his lifetime of work helping the less fortunate and encouraging peace internationally. (President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, too, this month.)

But in the foreword to a new kids' book about Habitat for Humanity, "If I Had a Hammer," Carter says that some of the happiest, most fulfilling moments of his life have been spent building Habitat houses. He spoke with KidsPost reporter Margaret Webb Pressler about Habitat and the importance of helping others.

What has made building houses for Habitat so special?

I saw it as a way to break down the very dense barriers between rich people, like us, who have almost everything, and poor people, who have nothing. It's very hard to cross that barrier -- to actually know someone who is in need, and second, to know how you can help them.

What's it like to be on a Habitat building project?

Just working side by side [with the people for whom the house is being built] is so good. We learned very quickly that those people who we might automatically assume to be somewhat inferior, we find are just as intelligent, just as hardworking and their family values are just as good as mine. They just haven't had the same economic success.

Is there one experience that stands out?

In the Philippines, the home on which we worked -- the woman who moved into it had three children. They had been living in an abandoned tank [a filthy space] about as large as the desk in front of me now. To move into a house was a transforming experience psychologically and physically. It gave them hope that the future could be even better.

How does it affect the children to have a new home?

In Oregon, a family with children who were looked upon as slow learners, [once they moved into] a new Habitat house, the kids became outstanding students. It was a matter of learning they had a place in society.

You have to be 16 to work on a Habitat building site. Can younger children help?

Sometimes if I get a letter from a grammar school teacher, I'll send them a list of building materials with prices so that a school or classroom can give enough money to pay for one element within the house.

What was your life like as a child?

I didn't have any white playmates -- all my neighbors were African American kids. We wrestled, we went in the fields, we went swimming together. I was living in Archery, Georgia, a rural community. It was during the Great Depression and . . . the people that had any kind of house and a yard, and access to wood to burn in the fireplace, and the ability to hunt and fish, had an exalted life. . . . I have nothing but fond memories.