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13 February 2007
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, last Tuesday started leading a delegation of senior-level Carter Center officials on an 11-day tour of Africa to call international attention to health needs among impoverished communities in Ghana, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Nigeria, it was learnt.
In Ethiopia, President Carter will attend the opening meeting of the Ethiopian Public Health Training Initiative's Replication Conference in Addis Ababa. The conference, the first of its kind, will illustrate the success that the Carter Center-assisted public health training has had in helping Ethiopia meet the growing need for trained health care workers in the country.
The center announced that delegation members include Carter Center Executive Director John Hardman, M.D., Associate Executive Director of Health Programs Donald R. Hopkins, M.D., M.P.H., and Board of Trustees Chairman John Moores, who will meet with African dignitaries and visit rural communities in an effort to bring global awareness to the prevalence of preventable diseases in communities in the four countries.
During his visit to Ghana, President Carter met with President John Agyekum Kufuor to discuss that country's continued efforts to eliminate Guinea worm disease. While in Sudan, President Carter and Jimmy Ross, Lions Club International president, meet with the newest local Lions Club to encourage the group to take up the fight against river blindness and trachoma.
During the delegation's final stop, in Nigeria, President Carter will meet with President Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo to request further governmental support to help Carter Center-assisted programs combat schistosomiasis and other neglected diseases.
People living in developing nations die or are disabled because they do not have access to the services they need to treat their illness or avoid infection entirely. The Carter Center said that it maintains a strong commitment to building hope in some of the world's most impoverished communities by assisting countries to provide education, awareness, and distribution of prevention and treatment supplies. With access to medicine, especially in the most rural communities, hope for a healthier, disease-free future is possible.
The Carter Center celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2007. A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has helped alleviate suffering and improve life for people in more than 65 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; improving mental health care; and teaching farmers to increase crop production. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide, it was learnt.