Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter serves as a powerful advocate for affordable housing in an interview with a Habitat video crew.

Q&A with Jimmy Carter

During the Jimmy Carter Work Project 2004, former U.S. President Carter took a break from his work in Puebla to sit down with a film crew from Habitat for Humanity International. Following are excerpts from that interview.

Q: You’ve traveled the world for 21 years doing JCWPs. What was the reason for returning to Mexico?

JC: Mexico was very eager to have us come. The other question was where do we find a Habitat organization advanced enough and well-organized enough to support the tremendous project that we bring here to Puebla, like 3,500 volunteers. You need food, water; you need a place to stay. So Puebla and Veracruz showed they were willing to undertake the commitment

Q: How much value do you place in the fact that homeowners are learning home repair, and they’re coming out as much more confident people in that regard?

	'Rosalynn and I often go back to homes we built 20 years ago or 15 years ago, and we never find any broken windows unrepaired, we never find any graffiti on the walls, and the homeowner has kept the house in very good shape.'

JC: After they’ve finished building a house side by side with other volunteers over a week, they are thoroughly familiar with the technique. But more importantly, I think, they are filled with pride: ‘This is a house that I built with my friends.’ And I think it means that they’ll take care of it. Rosalynn and I quite often go back to homes we built 20 years ago or 15 years ago, and we never find any broken windows unrepaired, we never find any graffiti on the walls, and the homeowner has kept the house in very good shape. If you go into the same kind of homes that are rented to people, even though they’ve only been in them five years, you find them dilapidated and not repaired and run-down looking. But I think that the pride of ownership is one of the most important things about Habitat.

Q: There are more than 3,500 Mexican volunteers here, and volunteerism is not the “norm” for Mexico or Latin American countries. Is that changing?

JC: In most countries outside the United States, volunteerism is not part of the culture. [But] volunteers soon learn as they become acquainted with their neighbors who might not be quite so well off that when they do volunteer with a project like Habitat, it never proves to be a personal sacrifice. It's always a greater blessing to the volunteer than any sacrifice they might make.

Q: Why is it important for people to learn that Habitat is about people helping people and that that help is not predicated on familial relations?

JC: The aid that is given to your relatives in a small community, we’ve seen that for thousands of years. That’s a normal habit that if “I help you now, then I know you’ll help me later on if I get in trouble.” That’s part of human consciousness and human custom. But what’s new about Habitat is these are people who come voluntarily and help families that are very poor and have never had a decent home. And most all of us volunteers who come in from the 35 foreign countries are quite financially able to take care of our own needs. It’s not a matter of “I’m helping you so I know you’ll help me later on.” It’s “I’m helping you because I really care for you, have compassion for you, I love you and I treat you as my equal.” And on the worksite, I would say the hardest worker on this house right behind us is the family that’s going to own the house.

Q: What is the message you want to give to partners who have already committed to [the JCWP 2005 in Michigan]?

JC: This is going to be a wonderful project, and I think that perhaps as much as any previous work project, this will be symbolically important to Habitat because Benton Harbor has always suffered with a feeling of inferiority. It’s where the poorest people live, right across the little river from the wealthier people; it’s where the predominantly black Americans live, right across the river from mostly white people. The Habitat project 2005 is going to change all that. It’s going to be a melding of the two communities, rich and poor, and it’s going to be a great escalation and improvement in the self-respect and confidence and hope of many people living in Benton Harbor.

Q: How significant is this project?

JC: There will be simultaneous Jimmy Carter Work Projects planned in many, many communities [throughout Michigan]. We’ll build several hundred homes in which I can’t be directly involved, but the partnership is a melded alliance, like a teamwork to help many families all over. …It’s going to be a wonderful experience to share that common commitment. even though we won’t be geographically in the same place.