On Sunday morning, former US President Jimmy Carter fell inside his home.
He suffered an injury that gave him a black eye and required 14 stitches under a large bandage. The next day, Monday, he was back at the Habitat for Humanity building site in Tennessee, building a home.
Former President Carter is the oldest living president at 95 years old but he is not showing any signs of stopping his humanitarian work.
He and his wife, former First Lady, Rosalynn Carter have been volunteering with Habitat for Humanity for 35 years. Together with other volunteers, they have built homes all over the US and around the world, including South Korea and the Philippines with 103,000 other volunteers.
Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit housing organization that has helped improve the housing conditions of more than 22 million people all over the world since 1976. They rely on volunteers, donations, and partners to operate.
Former President Carter and his wife partnered with Habitat for Humanity, shortly after they started volunteering.
The Carter Work Project is an annual event, which started 35 years ago, on September 1984. They travel to different cities in the US to improve the housing conditions of the communities in that city.
“We are grateful for President and Mrs. Carter’s continued partnership, and encourage you to participate in the Carter Work Project, adding to the legacy of this great work. You don’t have to have a lot of influence to make a difference, just the motivation to do the work needed,” Habitat for Humanity wrote on their website.
This year, 2019, the Carter Work Project goes to Nashville, Tennessee. They’ll be building the new porches of 21 Habitat homes in Nashville.
And on Sunday morning, as they were getting ready to go to church, President Carter fell and hit his head.
“I fell down and hit my forehead on a sharp edge and had to go to the hospital. And they took 14 stitches in my forehead and my eye is black, as you’ve noticed,” Jimmy Carter said. “But I had a No. 1 priority and that was to come to Nashville and build houses.”
In fact, he was back on his feet even earlier. He appeared and addressed the crowd in the kick-off event for the Carter Work Project that evening in Nashville.
On Monday morning, before construction began, President Carter led a morning devotion for a group of several hundred volunteers.
He used a cane to help him walk around the construction area. And one thing he always does while working is giving inspirational messages to the volunteers.
“With our freedom, every one of us can make a basic decision. … ‘What kind of person do I, myself, choose to be?’” he told them.
And despite his black eyes and stitches, he wasn’t just giving inspirational messages but working as well. He wielded an electric drill to put together pieces of wood for a corbel to be used later that day.
And the 2019 Carter Work Project isn’t just going to be about the new porches that were being built.
They’ll also be using it raise funds for an additional 12 new single-family homes and 26 new townhomes will be constructed by 2021.
Watch the video below to learn more about the man behind Jimmy Carter and his motivation behind his humanitarian work.
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