Few people have turned retirement into an opportunity for volunteerism with more enthusiasm than former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Now 73, he is chairman of the nonprofit Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. In this article, he explains why he spends his time volunteering, and why he finds it so satisfying.

When I retired from the White House in 1980 (four years earlier than planned), Rosalynn and I were faced with deciding how to spend the rest of our lives. We were fairly young -- both in our 50s and unemployed. We went directly from Washington to our home in Plains, Georgia (population 700), where I had not lived since I was elected governor of the state [in 1970].

You can imagine that this was not an easy transition. But we agreed that Plains was our home and where we wanted to stay. I had no desire to run again for public office, so we started thinking about how we could use some of the skills and experience we had acquired over the years to work on issues that had always been important to us.

We did a lot of soul-searching that first year. Out of this process came the idea for the Carter Center. We envisioned a nonprofit center, not affiliated with any government or political party, where we could bring people and resources together to promote peace and improve health around the world. We opened our center on the campus of Emory University in 1983, and moved into our permanent headquarters, adjacent to the newly built Jimmy Carter Library and Museum, in 1986.

Over the years, Rosalynn and I have turned retirement into another career through our work at the Carter Center. And I have to say that our post-presidential years have been even more fulfilling than our years in public office. On behalf of the Center, we have traveled to more than 115 countries. In North Korea, Haiti, Nicaragua, Liberia, the Sudan and elsewhere, we have helped resolve conflicts and defuse potentially explosive crises. We've spent weeks in remote villages in Africa, teaching residents how to eradicate Guinea worm disease and handing out free medicine to control river blindness. In other parts of Africa, we've helped farmers increase grain and corn production as much as 400 percent using simple, inexpensive agricultural practices. We've advanced human rights and helped Third World countries draft master plans for development.

At home in the United States, Rosalynn has continued her efforts on behalf of the mentally ill, building on her work as First Lady of Georgia and of the United States. We've helped inner city residents in Atlanta develop strategies to improve their lives, sharing what we've learned with more than 100 other cities. And when we're not working for the Carter Center, we spend a week each year building homes with other volunteers for Habitat for Humanity in the United States and in other countries.

All these projects have enriched my life in untold ways. I've learned things I never knew as a state senator or governor or even president. While reaching out to others, Rosalynn and I have filled our own needs to be challenged and to act as productive members of our global community.

Along the way, we've also found others seeking opportunities to lend time, experience and resources to alleviate suffering and improve lives. For example, at the Carter Center, we pool our resources with those of our many partners -- including corporations, foundations and individuals. I've visited with employees of donor organizations, including Merck, DuPont and United Parcel Service. Many were moved to tears when I told them how their companies' donations have helped free villages in Africa from Guinea worm disease and river blindness, or have eased the struggles of a family in our own country.

Let me give you another example of how retirement has changed our view of the world. Rosalynn and I have led Carter Center teams to observe -- and sometimes mediate -- free and fair elections in some 15 countries. In 1990, we stood in line with Haitians at the polling place where just three years earlier, dozens of people had been killed by government-sponsored terrorists while trying to vote. Many had risen in the middle of the night to walk ten or 15 miles to stand in that same line -- even though they feared for their lives. As we traveled around Port-au-Prince that day, we talked to people who had waited hours just for the opportunity to vote -- a sacred privilege we and others often take for granted here in the United States.

We live in a land of opportunity, and our retirement from political life has opened a whole new world of excitement and challenges. For us, retirement has not been the end, but a new beginning. We hope to spend many more years actively making the most of the rest of our lives.

Jimmy Carter was president of the United States from 1977 to 1981.

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This article has been cleared for republication by the press outside the United States except the local press in India, Japan, Spain, Russia and Thailand. Credit to the author and the publication should appear on the title page of any reprint. Abridged from Business Week, July 20, 1998.