In 1984, former President Jimmy Carter donated one day of his carpentry skills on a Habitat work site in Americus, Ga. Thus was born the annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project (JRCWP). In the ensuing 24 years, 23 projects have been completed in locations as diverse as Eagle Butte, S.D.; New York City; Manila, Philippines; and Lonavala, India.

Today the annual project has become an internationally recognized event of Habitat for Humanity International. It draws thousands of volunteers to build homes and raises awareness of the critical need for affordable housing all over the globe.

The 2009 JRCWP takes place Nov. 15-20 in Chiang Mai, Thailand and will build 82 simple, decent homes for low-income families in northern Thailand. Officially titled the Mekong Build 2009, it launches a five-year Habitat for Humanity initiative to work with 50,000 families across the five countries situated in the Mekong Region: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and the Yunnan Province of China.

Some of the poorest people in the area live along the Mekong. Nearly one-third of the population (80 million out of 250 million) live in poverty, many on less than a dollar per day despite the rapid economic growth in the last decade.

The Mekong River is one of the world’s greatest rivers. It flows over 2,500 miles from the Tibetan highlands to the South China Sea. It’s one long river with two different branches; the path of the upper river is marked with rapids and winds through China to Laos and the path of the broad muddy lower Mekong, which flows through Cambodia and Vietnam, and is sometimes inverted by tides. Often the varied nature of the two branches has served to separate the countries in its path rather than join them.

The Habitat Mekong Build attempts to unite people from all over the region and the world to build a future where every man, woman and child has a decent place to live.

During the week of the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project, there will be simultaneous home builds at Habitat for Humanity build sites in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and southwestern China.

Thailand was selected for the JRCWP because, despite being one of the great economic development success stories in the region, the prosperity is spread unevenly throughout the country. Many Thai families find that having a regular income still does not guarantee access to the formal housing sector. The increased prosperity has driven up demand for land and land prices have increased.

The Thai National Housing Authority estimates that some 8.2 million people live in substandard housing. The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project and the five-year Mekong Build initiative hope to help alleviate the problem.

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