Carter’s brick by brick connect with 100 Malavli homeowners

Pune: In Malavli town, thousands of km from US soil where its 39th president Jimmy Carter passed away on Sunday, a group of people from Sampark Abhinav Cooperative Housing Society was quietly lost in memories while others were teary-eyed on Monday. Sitting inside her home in the town, some 50km from Pune and close to the hill station of Lonavla, 45-year-old Malan Baikar remembered Carter. "The bricks and concrete for this house where I live were laid by the former US President.

I feel sad that he is no more," she said on Monday. Carter helped build her house and several others during his visit to Malavli in October 2006 when 100 poor families got their own houses under the Jimmy Carter Work Project carried out by Habitat for Humanity organisation. When construction began, Carter and his family, travelled to Malavli to participate in the building activity along with these families.



Celebrities like Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt, who was in Pune when his partner Angelina Jolie was shooting for ‘A Mighty Heart', and former captain of the Australian cricket team Steve Waugh joined Carter. It was a sunny morning, Malan told TOI. The organisation providing them affordable homes set a condition—some of them would have to participate in the building activity along with construction workers.

She added, "I was already working on my house when I saw many foreigners arrive. One of them was a tall, old man wearing a checked shirt, jeans and a cap. He wore gloves and started building a wall slathering cement and laying bricks for my home.

He had a smile on his face." She said she had no clue who the 82-year-old Carter was. "When I was told that he was a former US President, I scarcely believed it, thinking why would someone so important build my home.

However, when the organisation gave out details, I knew it was true. His humility was a big surprise and I quite touched by his participation. I wept when I heard he is no more," Malan added.

The construction, initiated as Jimmy Carter Work Project in 2006, was later renamed Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Project. Another beneficiary Leelavati Kadam said she got the keys to her home on February 28, 2007, and she remembered working with Carter. "Language was a barrier as we could not talk to him in English and he knew no Marathi.

However, he was extremely modest and showed genuine concern for the poor. He conveyed through a translator that it was his mother's dream to help the poor which he was realising by coming to Malavli," she added. For 60-year-old Shashikala Thorat, who works with a cooperative society, Carter shattered all stereotypes of a politician.

She said, "We have seen many who hardly care about the poor. Carter was the US president. Yet, there was no sign of arrogance or ego in his behaviour.

He was humble and focused on building out homes. He made sure that all arrangements, right from water to good food, was available for all of us." She believes Carter's coming to Malavli was instrumental in them getting their homes.

"Some of us would have still been staying in huts. We never met him again after his visit to Malavli but we feel strongly about him even after his visit nearly two decades ago. We will always carry him in our hearts and be thankful to him for thinking about the poor," Shashikala told TOI.

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