Former US president Jimmy Carter launched a house building project to provide 100 homes in Durban on the South African east coast on Sunday, calling on volunteers in the project ”to get their hands dirty”.
Speaking at the launch of the Jimmy Carter Work Project (JCWP) 2002, the former statesman said 4 500 volunteers will unite to build the homes in empoverished Cato Manor, some 10 kilometres west of the city centre.
”This will be a time to get your hands dirty and work,” Carter told the crowd which included former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda, South African Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Durban’s mayor Obed Mlaba.
Carter said he and his family felt a deep commitment to South Africa, and for the past 18 years, have spent one week per year building homes for people in need.
”My family is close to this great country. We look forward to working with all the volunteers from tomorrow (Monday),” enthused Carter, whose wife Rosalynn and eldest grand-son, Jason, will be part of the voluntary corps, building homes for the rest of the week.
The JCWP is held at different locations each year, with last years project being completed in South Korea.
The building of the houses in Cato Manor this week is the culmination of the building of 1 000 homes in 18 different African countries this year.
Between 1994 and 2001, the country’s government has built some 1,2-million low cost houses, a survey by the South African Institute of Race Relations reported, but an estimated 7,3-million of some 44,3-million people in the country were still living in often unhealthy informal urban housing units. – Sapa-AFP