Former US president Jimmy Carter helped the housing charity that he champions, Habitat for Humanity, launch a campaign yesterday to build homes for 50,000 families in the Mekong River region over the next five years.
Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, are among 3,000 volunteers from 25 countries working with Habitat for Humanity this week to help build and repair homes along the Mekong River in Thailand, Vietnam, China, Cambodia and Laos.
The homes in Cambodia are being built for families currently living in a garbage dump, the ones in Vietnam are for fishermen who now live on their boats, and the project in China involves construction of an apartment building in a part of Sichuan Province devastated by an earthquake last year.
PHOTO: AFP
“In an area of the world where many people live in deplorable conditions, we have a chance to help families improve their housing,” said Carter, wearing sneakers, jeans and a work shirt. He and his wife spent yesterday helping build homes in northern Thailand’s Chiang Mai Province, where 82 will be constructed in honor of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who celebrates his 82nd birthday next month.
Habitat for Humanity’s chief executive officer Jonathan Reckford said the Georgia-based nonprofit group decided to scale up its activities in the Mekong region over the next five years because the needs were so great.
“This is an area that gets less attention than some other parts of the world,” Reckford said. “But if you look at income levels, there are huge numbers of families living at terribly low levels at a dollar a day. There is a huge deficit of decent housing, so it starts with the need.”
Carter, who spent the morning filling in the foundation cracks of a home, said his experience over the years with Habitat has been a rare chance to work along with some of the world’s poorest families.
He was joined by several regional celebrities, including Chinese movie star Jet Li (李連杰) and Japanese football legend Hidetoshi Nakata.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for me and my wife to break down the barriers that exist between rich people like us and those in need who have never had a decent home,” Carter said. “Every year when we have been in a place side by side with Habitat families, we have always benefited more than we contributed. We have always come out ahead.”
Alongside Carter, the several hundred volunteers worked with the new homeowners under a blazing sun to build the foundations and start work on the doors and windows for the homes, which were expected to be finished Friday. Among the volunteers were the US ambassador Eric John and scores from US companies, including 65 from Delta Airlines.
“It’s a good feeling to see everything built for these families,” said Carl Leon-Guerrero, a Delta customer service supervisor from Nashville, Tennessee. “As a native of Guam, I know what Asian communities go through with the typhoons and monsoons. So it’s good to see a concrete home for these families.”
Since its founding in 1976, Habitat has built and rehabilitated more than 300,000 homes, providing simple shelter for 1.5 million people.
North Korea blew up sections of roads in its own territory that are part of links once used to connect the southern part of the peninsula with the north, in a show of defiance after it accused Seoul of flying drones over Pyongyang. North Korea detonated bombs north of its eastern and western borders at around noon yesterday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. South Korea’s military later fired off warning shots within its border, said the JCS, which also confirmed there were no reports of damage in South Korea from the detonations. A video released by the South Korean
It is usually a serene two-and-a-half-hour ride on Japan’s famously efficient bullet train, but on Saturday, the journey quickly descended into a zombie apocalypse, with passengers screaming in terror. Organizers of the adrenaline-filled trip, less than two weeks before Halloween, touted it as the world’s first haunted house experience on a running Shinkansen. On board one chartered car of the Shinkansen, about 40 thrill-seekers were ready to brave an encounter with the living dead between Tokyo and the western metropolis of Osaka. The eerie experience was inspired by the hit 2016 South Korean action-horror movie Train to Busan, in which a father and
A member of chart-topping K-pop group NewJeans yesterday tearfully testified to South Korean lawmakers as part of an inquiry into workplace harassment, amid a boardroom drama over her super producer. In recent years, South Korea’s K-pop industry has become a global juggernaut powered by the success of groups like BTS, but domestically it is known for imposing strict standards and controls on fledgling stars. Rising K-pop idols are expected to adhere to their powerful agency’s behavior and appearance guidelines, with many stars describing receiving extreme backlash from fans over perceived mistakes in their personal lives, for example dating. Hanni, 20, who is
IRANIAN THREATS: Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami said that it would be a ‘mistake’ for Israel to attack Iran and if it did ‘we will strike you again painfully’ Israel yesterday bombed a Syrian coastal city, while the US conducted multiple strikes on targets in Yemen nearly a month into Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Syria, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza all belong to the so-called “axis of resistance” led by Iran, which on Oct. 1 conducted a missile strike on Israel. Israel has vowed to retaliate for the strike. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami yesterday said in a speech that Tehran would hit Israel “painfully” if it attacks Iranian targets. “If you make a mistake and attack our targets, whether in the region or in