"They lead the Jimmy Carter Work Project (JCWP) to help build houses and raise awareness of the need for affordable housing. Since, the first work project in 1984, more than 2,000 houses have been built in conjunction with JCWP events," Reckford added.
According to news reports, many celebrities from across the world, including Hollywood actor Brad Pitt and former Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh came down to lend a hand. Among Indian celebrities, one could see actor John Abraham, actress and talk–show host Pooja Bedi and former Miss World and Miss India Diana Hayden teaming up with the Carters and other volunteers in building the homes, brick by brick.
This year's JCWP is associated with Habitat for Humanity India's "India Builds" program.
The five–year campaign plans to engage 1 million volunteers in helping to provide shelter in partnership with 250,000 people. The campaign also seeks to raise funds for a sustainable revolving fund worth $ 50 million.
The Carters are Habitat's most famous volunteers. Each year since 1984, the Carters have given one week of their time to build homes and raise awareness about the need for simple, decent and affordable housing. Previous JCWP events have been held in New York City, Georgia, Michigan, the Philippines, Hungary, South Korea and South Africa. Habitat's JCWP 2007 will be in Los Angeles.
Major HFH partners include Citigroup, Dow India, Vedanta Resources, Posco India, Whirlpool Corporation, Cisco, HDFC Ltd., Aditya Birla Group and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
Last June, the Citigroup Foundation presented the Christian homebuilding organization with a $ 2 million grant that was partly used to support the JCWP in a village near Lonavala, near Mumbai, India, Oct. 30 – Nov. 3.
Wockhardt Hospitals, India's leading super speciality hospital chain was selected to provide emergency and medical and healthcare support to all project volunteers who came down from various parts of the globe for building houses for the underprivileged in Lonavala.
Ministries
Jimmy Carter Project builds homes and hopes
By: Jacob Chaterjee
Friday, 17 November 2006, 7:13 (IST)
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