LEOGANE, HAITI (11/10/2011) -- Former President Jimmy Carter works alongside other volunteers and homepartners during the 2011 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project. (c)Habitat for Humanity/Steffan Hacker
A Life of Service
On December 29th, 2024, former president Jimmy Carter passed away at the age of 100. Since 1984, Mr. Carter volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, building homes and hope through the Jimmy Carter Work Project (JCWP), which to date has has built 4,447 homes together with 10,8000 volunteers in 14 countries around the world.
Together with people around the world, Habitat for Humanity Japan mourns the loss of Jimmy Carter. Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter spent over 40 years as models of caring and kindness, shining a light upon those around the world in need of decent and affordable housing all while touching those around them, spreading hope and opportunity. One of these individuals touched by Mr. Carter’s actions is longtime supporter of Habitat Japan, Mariko Watanabe
As a college student, Mariko acted as vice president of the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies’ Habitat for Humanity campus chapter. In the spring of 1999, she and other student volunteers from Kyoto University of Foreign Studies and Kwansei Gakuin University traveled to Atlanta, Georgia. She and her peers from founding Japan campus chapters made the journey to meet Mr. Carter, visit the Habitat for Humanity headquarters in Atlanta, and to participate in a Habitat build together with the University of Notre Dame campus chapter in Indiana.
The Japanese students were able to meet Mr. Carter at Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, which would go on to become the same church where both Rosalyn and Jimmy Carter’s funerals would be held. Mariko had personally attended Global Village three times before first meeting Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter, and was able to share her experiences with them before going on to build alongside the two during the 1999 Jimmy Carter Work Project in the Philippines.
When asked about Mr. Carter, Mariko recalled how Jimmy and Rosalyn got along so well, and how the two always spoke kindly to them. It was clear that Mariko deeply respected the Carters’ dedication to volunteering both from over 20 years ago and up until their passing.
Not to mention his charisma, what stood out to us students about Mr. Carter was the way he treated us with respect and solidarity. I remember him making remarks like “We are all the same as volunteers” that helped shrink the distance between us and cemented him as a friendly face in my memory.
Volunteering with Habitat every year, the Carters always treated not only the homeowners, but their fellow volunteers as equals regardless of differences of age, gender, nationality, and the circumstances of one’s birth. I can only imagine how many hearts he touched while spreading the seeds for a better future. I don’t think we can truly ever know the extent of his impact.
PLAINS, GEORGIA, USA (1999) -- Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter and Habitat student volunteers from Japan gathered outside Maranatha Baptist Church.
Mr. Carter led a life of restless advocacy for peace, the environment, equality, and human rights. A a true champion for building a world where everyone has a decent place to live, bringing people across the globe together with kindness, we celebrate Mr. Carter’s life as a pillar of volunteerism and community.