While others quietly retire after reaching the pinnacle of leadership, President and Mrs. Carter have sought new ways to serve society. In 1982, Jimmy Carter founded the Carter Center at Emory University and, in 1987, Rosalynn Carter established the Rosalynn Carter Institute (RCI) for Human Development at Georgia Southwestern College. The Carter Center is a consortium of nonprofit organizations promoting world peace and international health policies. It includes the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum; The Task Force for Child Survival and Development; the Carter-Menil Human Rights Foundation; the Atlanta Project, which attacks social problems associated with urban poverty; and Global 2000 Inc. Through Global 2000 Inc., the Carter Center has initiated disease control, rehabilitation, and large-scale agricultural demonstration projects in Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, RCI has organized an impressive array of extensive programs to assist people with physical illnesses associated with aging, as well as caregivers of persons with mental and emotional problems. Mrs. Carter says that problems such as poverty, malnutrition, mental illness, substance abuse, and violence toward women "defy separate solutions and are interconnected." In addition to these national and international commitments, the Carters feel it's important to act locally. One of their favorite charities is Habitat for Humanity. Since 1984, they have built at least one home each year for someone in need. If they could be separated, each of the Carters' accomplishments would stand as a monument to goodness of some magnitude, but in combination they have made a mark few can equal.
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