Krishnamurthy Meets Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter at Habitat

Leela Krishnamurthy meeting former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn at an invitation only meeting in Plains, Georgia for those associated with the Habitat for Humanity.

Leela Krishnamurthy meeting former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn at an invitation only meeting in Plains, Georgia for those associated with the Habitat for Humanity.

By Jawahar Malhotra

PLAINS, GA: Though she and her husband have been associated for years with the Habitat for Humanity’s Houston Chapter, where she serves on the Board, and have long admired the charitable work that the organization has done in changing the lives of those without homes, Leela Krishnamurthy was pleasantly surprised when she received the invitation came to visit a person she admired.

And soon thereafter, she found herself among a select group of 45 individuals from all over the world who were having a private meeting on April 27 and 28 with the two people most closely associated with the HFH, former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn, at Carter’s hometown Plains, Georgia. Krishnamurthy was accompanied by her daughter Sujata’s husband, Tom Speiss of Los Angeles.

The occasion was to allow the people to network with one another and exchange ideas on how to address the needs for homes in their parts of the world. HFH was founded in 1976 and has been active internationally, with five area offices in the Americus, Georgia for the US, and Canada; Africa and the Middle East (located in Pretoria, South Africa); Asia-Pacific (Bangkok, Thailand); Europe and Central Asia (Bratislava, Slovakia); and Latin America and the Caribbean (San Jose, Costa Rica).

The boyhood home of Jimmy Carter in Plains, Georgia

The boyhood home of Jimmy Carter in Plains, Georgia

The attendees were given a tour of the Global Village in Americus where replicas of the before and after versions of the houses built around the world are on display. But the real treat for them was a chance to meet the Carters who have been associated with HFH since 1984, three years after they left the White House. The Carters briefly visited with each person over a buffet lunch and they later heard him give a Sunday School sermon at the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains.

A touching moment of the trip was a visit to the boyhood home in Plains of Jimmy Carter, which still has no running water or electricity and for a shower has a bucket with holes suspended from a steel pipe.

At the age of 92, Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn, 89 are still so committed to HFH that they will help to build 150 homes in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to help mark the sesquicentennial anniversary of the Canadian Confederation.

“I am very humbled and blessed to have been invited by Habitat International to attend this by invitation only. It was a unique spiritually uplifting experience,” said Krishnamurthy after she returned.  “Jimmy Carter is a true role model and inspiration. I feel very blessed to have met him.”