Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has become well known in recent years for his partnership with Habitat for Humanity. This month, President Carter will be in Windsor, Ontario building houses as part of his annual blitz-build. Read on to find out more about the Jimmy Carter Work Projects–past, present and future, as well as an inspiring story about students building houses and hope in Chile.

Habitat for Humanity Canada will partner with Habitat for Humanity Windsor-Essex in building six homes during this special week. Key sponsors in this project include Whirlpool Corporation and Weyerhaeuser.

Sign at the JCWP build site. Photo: Terry  Petkau, Habitat for Humanity Canada

President Carter's longstanding relationship with Habitat for Humanity began in 1984 when he spent a day donating his carpentry skills and manual labour at a Habitat for Humanity work site. The Jimmy Carter Work Project is now Habitat for Humanity's largest annual event. The Carters have personally been involved with the construction of more the 10,000 Habitat for Humanity houses worldwide, including the Jimmy Carter Work Project 1993, in Waterloo and Winnipeg.

Sponsorship and volunteer opportunities for the 2005 Jimmy Carter Work Project are still available, but filling up quickly. For more information, please contact Terry Petkau, Habitat for Humanity's Director of Special Projects tpetkau@habitat.ca.

The Jimmy Carter Work Project is Habitat for Humanity's largest annual event, and former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn are its most high-profile volunteers. How did this Nobel Laureate and former world leader become so entwined with Habitat's mission, and what motivates him to keep building? Find out in this special Habitat World column, in which he shares the joy he and Mrs. Carter find "in serving those who have too few advocates, too few friends, in this world."
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JCWP in Mexico, 2004. Photo: Terry Petkau,  Habitat for Humanity Canada

"I must have seemed like a kid in a candy store for the first time," Calhoun says with a smile in his voice. "My mouth was wide open at everything. And the whole thing flowed—there was a Habitat for Humanity sign as we got off the plane, and I joined the lineup of 30 or 40 people. They checked us off and assigned us to hotels and put us on buses. The whole thing was extremely well organized."

The next morning while it was still dark, Calhoun walked a block to climb onto one of twenty buses that would take volunteers to the work site. He was keen to be early to make sure he would register in time to volunteer. He describes the moving experience of walking into a monstrously huge tent where the 2,000 volunteers from 32 different countries would be fed throughout the week.

Jimmy Carter at the JCWP, Mexico, 2004.   Photo: Terry Petkau, HFHC

After breakfast, volunteers were given maps to find the house they had been assigned to. Calhoun joined a group of 20 volunteers standing on the concrete pad which would be the foundation for the house they were to build. He recalls feeling that the task was inconceivable, but at the same time realizing that it had been done before, so it just might be possible. Around them was a sea of humanity.

The homeowners-to-be were always on the site before the other volunteers and were the last to leave at night. Most mornings the homeowners led devotions, with the help of interpreters and there were almost always tears. Calhoun, who did not speak Spanish and who kept his focus on the building process, describes the look in the homeowners' eyes. "It was as if they were wondering: why are you here? How will this crew of misfits ever build a house? Will they do a good job?" By the end of the day, those questions were replaced by hope and faith.

Conditions were challenging, with hot sun and thirty-degree temperatures each day. On the first day alone, more than ten percent of the volunteers used the first aid station–for heat related illness more than injury.

Canada House, with team from Canada, JCWP Mexico, 2004. Photo: Terry Petkau, HFHC

Exhaustion in such conditions was more than usual, and by the dedication ceremony at the end of the week, emotions were overflowing. Each day, volunteers had been given printed stories of the conditions the homeowners had lived in, and as the houses were dedicated and the volunteers left the site for the final time, Calhoun remembers wondering how these houses would change their lives.

For Calhoun himself, the change was profound. On his final walk from the build site, Calhoun said to himself: "Can you imagine–if you hadn't gone–what you would have missed?"

Three months later, Calhoun and his wife joined Habitat volunteers he met at the JCWP, in New Zealand, building houses in two cities while on holidays. He has shared his enthusiasm with many others, encouraging them to get involved with Habitat for Humanity around the world.

Neil Calhoun remembers one small final picture: the building materials in Mexico were different from those he had used in Canada. The bricks were porous and could be cut with a handsaw. The Canadian volunteers decided to add a special touch to the house they built: a small Canadian flag carved onto a cornerstone. He hopes the family will remember the Canadians, as they will surely remember their experience in Mexico.

In 2004, Habitat for Humanity Canada sent a Canadian team to the JCWP '04 in Mexico and sponsored two homes. We anticipate participating in the JCWP '06, the "Super Bowl" of Habitat builds. volunteers must pay their own expenses, which are anticipated to be about $4,500 CDN each. Potential volunteers should watch our web site and E-Newsletter for information for registrations, expected in early 2006.

Habitat for Humanity build in Chile. Photo  courtesy of ????

The trip began with eleven hours in the air between Ottawa and Santiago, Chile. Once on the ground, the students were not allowed to work on the build site over the weekend because of labour laws for minors, so instead their trip began with touring the capital city and enjoying the rich culture and warm hospitality of the Chileans.

On Monday morning, they were put to work on the build site in Temuco, Chile. Organizer Monique Poirier, a teacher at Centre Scolaire, was amazed at the effort put forth by the students. This was the fourth Habitat for Humanity trip the school's students had taken, but this crew of students was highly motivated. Isabelle Létourneau was one of the participants. She described being motivated by willpower to achieve their "ultimate goal to help the people in need by accomplishing as much as possible before the end of our . . . term." The students were involved in expanding inadequate housing: houses that were ten square metres were expanded by another 18 square metres. Students and teachers joined the Chilean volunteers in digging trenches, pouring concrete foundations, and building 20 walls for six houses.

The trip was life-changing for both the young Canadians and the Chileans. Many of the Chileans could not understand why young people from a faraway country would choose to help them on their holidays, while the experience was profound for the students who saw the warmth and hospitality of the people in Chile who had so little, and yet demonstrated the importance of love of neighbour and family over and over again.

After the final day of building, the students-who were the first Canadian Habitat for Humanity team in Chile-were special guests at a fiesta thrown by the future home owners. "Everyone ate, danced laughed and cried, for it was a final chance to soak in the difference [we had] made in the lives of other people less fortunate than [ourselves]." wrote Sarah Corriveau and Chantale Irwin in a special feature in the local Pembroke Observer (quoted with permission).

The school and students plan another Habitat for Humanity trip in 2007. As in this trip, the students will raise money to cover all the costs of the trip. Isabelle Létourneau describes the experience as "very fulfilling" and uniting the students "as a team and as friends."

For more information on organizing a similar trip to any of the 100 countries in which Habitat for Humanity is at work, or to participate in an organized HFH Global Village project, please visit www .habitat.ca.