Former United States president Jimmy Carter is smoothing mortar under the blistering Indian sun as a perspiring Brad Pitt stacks cement blocks. Nearby, retired Australian cricketer Steve Waugh lifts a window frame into place. Around them, farmers, celebrities, tycoons and university students are building houses against a backdrop of rolling hills. Working beside them is Hong Kong resident Marie Tseung Sau-lit, 49 and a dentist, who has spent the past five days laying cement blocks and helping to install sheet metal on the roof of a modest house.
They are all volunteers for the Jimmy Carter Work Project, an annual exercise run by non-profit housing organisation Habitat for Humanity in which houses are built for the poor. This year, it took place near the small town of Lonavala - about 100km from Mumbai - from October 30 to November 4.
Her tiny one-room house, with a miniscule toilet and kitchen, may not look like much, but for 26-year-old widow Meena Sathe it is the culmination of a long struggle. Putting aside the price of a cup of tea every day, it took Sathe 10 years to save for her 33 square metre house. Sathe earns only 1,000 rupees (HK$175) a month as a housekeeper and was widowed three years ago. 'When my husband died, the responsibility of looking after my two children was entirely mine. I had nothing before and now I have my own house,' she says, smiling proudly. Homeowner Sadhiya Sheikh, 30, had the distinction of having both Carter and Pitt working on her house. 'I had never heard of Carter or Brad Pitt before, but I am overjoyed they have come all this way to build our house,' she says.
Another Hong Kong volunteer, Jocelyn Chu, is enthusiastic about the role she has played in the project. 'It's not every day you get the chance to be part of the Jimmy Carter project. It's very
hard, gruelling work but it is also a great learning experience.' Chu, a homemaker in her late 40s, hopes to bring her college-going children on her next visit.
For 30 years, Habitat for Humanity has been building houses for the poor of 100 countries. Unlike many charities, Habitat offers a 'hand up, not a handout', as its staff are fond of saying. Homeowners are required to have put in 'sweat equity', which means they have had to work an average of 500
hours on their own house and help build others in the community.
