News & Publications

Carter Center Peace and Health Feature Articles

Read stories of lives changed by the Center's commitment to creating a world in which
every man, woman, and child has the opportunity to enjoy good health and live in peace.

22 December 2008
Harvard Article Spotlights the Carter Center's Work in Rural Liberia
At the invitation of  President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, The Carter Center is helping Liberia rebuild  its legal infrastructure, which is a prerequisite for lasting peace and democratic progress. We work in partnership with leaders at the highest levels of government, as well as those in the most remote areas of Liberia, and act as a communication bridge between these groups.

9 December 2008
Carter Center Delegation Observes Ghana's Peaceful, Historic Elections
More than 50 Carter Center observers witnessed Ghana's Dec. 7 elections, the results of which will determine the country's next president and parliament.

4 November 2008
Carter Center Hosts Chinese Delegation to Witness U.S. Elections in San Francisco, Washington, D.C.
A Chinese delegation hosted by The Carter Center is studying today's U.S. election in the San Francisco and Washington, D.C., areas to learn more about election procedures and reduce misperceptions by the Chinese of the American democratic system.

8 October 2008
Ambitious Goal to End Blindness-Inducing Disease
Conventional wisdom says trachoma — the leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide — can only be treated, not eliminated. But Teshome Gebre, The Carter Center's point man for trachoma control in Ethiopia, hopes to defy that wisdom. He is convinced that trachoma's blinding and debilitating effects can be stopped before the end of the next decade, the targeted goal for global trachoma elimination.

1 September 2008
Killing the Worm
Published in GOOD Magazine, Issue 012, pages 106-115.
Disease eradication hasn't had a success since smallpox in 1979. Now, Guinea worm disease—in which a three-foot long worm burrows through its victim's body—is holding out in just a few African countries. The quest to wipe it out is slow and controversial, but the finish line is in sight.

23 August 2008
Financial Times Feature:  The Worm That Turned Back
Published in the Financial Times, Aug. 23, 2008, Weekend Edition, pages 15-18.
When Makoy Samuel Yibi Logora was growing up in a village in southern Sudan, no one there knew what caused Guinea worm. But they certainly understood its effects. The skin swells and becomes infected as a thin white parasitic worm takes several weeks to emerge slowly, agonisingly, through a huge blister.

7 August 2008
Carter Center Works to Improve Bilateral Relationship Between Colombia and Ecuador
The Carter Center is working to improve the bilateral relationship between Colombia and Ecuador through a dialogue process between key citizens of both countries, which it organized in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program.

7 August 2008
New Video:  "The Carter Center in Latin America" Highlights Promotion of Meaningful Democracy
The Carter Center works toward the collective protection and promotion of meaningful democracy in the Western Hemisphere.  The Center strives to enhance the quality of democracy and its ability to improve the lives of individuals in three areas:

25 July 2008
Sadia Revisited:  A Young Girl's Triumph  Over Guinea Worm Disease
During 2007, Sadia Mesuna, 6, spent two months at a Guinea worm containment center in Ghana after an outbreak of the disease in her hometown of Savelugu, in the Northern Region.  She was in agony as three Guinea worms emerged from her feet.

23 June 2008
Guinea Worm Cases Drop to Fewer Than 10,000
The countdown to complete elimination of Guinea worm disease is ticking closer to zero. Ethiopia, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Togo now have joined the list of countries reporting an end to transmission of the disease. The Carter Center leads the international coalition fighting the disease.

2 May 2008
Palestinians in Gaza Ask Jimmy Carter:  Former U.S. President Answers Videotaped Questions 
At the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, nongovernmental representatives from the human rights community and nongovernmental organizations gathered to hear President Carter's April 21, 2008 Jerusalem press conference and send him their questions via video.  


1 May 2008
The Carter Center Embraces Next Quarter-Century
In practice, waging peace, fighting disease, and building hope are not easy tasks. Yet our mission at The Carter Center is to embrace these difficult responsibilities, accepting failure as a possible outcome. In our first 25 years, the Center showed that no matter how insurmountable challenges to global peace or health may seem, there is hope they can be overcome.

1 May 2008
In the News:  Interviews with Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter
Archived video, links to transcripts, of President Carter's recent media interviews.



21 April 2008
Nepal Elections Mark New Political Beginning
Carter Center election observers witnessed a historic vote in Nepal on April 10 creating a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution for the country that will likely abolish the 240-year-old monarchy.

10 April 2008
International Carter Center Delegation Observes Historic Nepal Elections
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter led the Carter Center's international election observation delegation to Nepal's historic constituent assembly elections, co-led by Dr. Surakiart Sathirathai, former deputy prime minister of Thailand.

25 March 2008
Life on the Edge:  Carter Center Project Examines Development Challenges on Ecuador-Colombia Border
Buenaventura Morales has a kind face worn weary from life, and friendly eyes that hide the depression plaguing him since he fled his native Colombia after massacres to his village in 2004. His wife died along the way, and he said he feels unable to support his four children by himself; he can't find a job in this poor border region of Ecuador.

6 March 2008

The Carter Center Malaria Program Celebrates Successes in Ethiopia

After launching its malaria program in 2006, The Carter Center moved quickly to supply a shortfall of 3 million LLINs, requested by the Ethiopian Ministry of Health to help reach Ethiopia's goal of 20 million LLINs to cover all households in malarious areas by mid-2007. 



21 February 2008
Conference to Address Advancements, Challenges to Worldwide Access to Public Information Laws
Access to public information matters to the average citizen: it is a human right with the power to make a difference in both individual lives and in the life of a community.

11 February 2008
Carter Center Assists Liberia's Ministry of Justice in Strengthening Rule of Law
Involved with Liberia since 1991, when invited by West African leaders during the country's first civil war to assist in the peace process, The Carter Center observed Liberia's 1997 and 2005 elections and has worked there in many other ways over the years.

12 December 2007
25 Years of The Carter Center: Changing Agenda, Enduring Principles
The year 2007 marks the Carter Center's 25th anniversary. In the following article, former
U.S. President Jimmy Carter reflects on the Center's evolution and his hopes for waging peace, fighting disease, and building hope into the future.

29 November 2007
Carter Center Helps Educate Liberians on Laws, Rights
Although the country's decades of violence are over, Liberia's women continue to face their own private wars: marital rape, domestic abuse, poverty. The Carter Center, at the invitation of Liberia's Ministry of Justice and in partnership with community-based organizations in the West African country, is helping close the violence gap through local education programs and governmental capacity building.

12 October 2007
Election Delayed, But Long-Term Observers Continue in Nepal
Nepal has undergone tremendous changes in the past year. A 2006 peace agreement ended a decade of fighting between government forces and the Maoists, and the country's king gave up all power other than his ceremonial status. Plans were set in motion to elect a constituent assembly, which would determine the country's future by writing a new constitution.

12 October 2007
Long-Term Election Observers Go the Distance in Nepal (slide show)
A Carter Center multimedia feature on the Carter Center's long-term election observers — the only international observation mission in Nepal — deployed throughout the country.

12 October 2007
Long-Term Election Observer Reflects on Being Part of Nepal "Roaming Team"
Jason Katz is a long-term observer (LTO) for the Carter Center's election observation mission in Nepal. Katz previously worked at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Washington, D.C., and served as an election monitor during both rounds of elections in Peru in 2001.

12 October 2007
Nepal Elections:  By Foot, Car, and Plane, Observer Assesses Country's Readiness
Stefanie Gross is a long-term observer (LTO) for the Carter Center's election observation mission in Nepal. Originally from Germany, Stefanie completed her undergraduate degree in political studies and her postgraduate degree in conflict resolution in the United Kingdom before interning at The Carter Center in 2006.

 

9 October 2007
Carter Center Mental Health Program Observes World Mental Health Day
Mental illnesses affect people of all ages in all countries and societies,  from the boy soldier in Sierra Leone traumatized by years of bloody civil war to the aging farmer in Oklahoma suffering from depression. These illnesses have a profound impact on the quality of life for individuals and families and stunt economic growth in societies around the world.

9 October 2007
In South Africa, a Journalist Finds Words for Unspeakable Tragedies
It was a recurring headline in South African newspapers: "Cop Murder-Suicide Claims Family." Dozens of sons, fathers, and husbands working in the South African Police Service had committed these crimes against their own families, but the stories of what motivated them were rarely told.

9 October 2007
Mental Health Fellow Breaks Down Stereotypes
Time and money to access voluminous public records are luxuries most reporters do not have to investigate negligence or malfeasance in the public sector.

9 October 2007
Journalism Fellowships Expand to Romania
Alex Ulmanu sometimes wonders if things could have been different.
"I had a colleague in university who was a brilliant, brilliant person and who committed suicide in her very early 20s. We learned afterward that she was suffering from schizophrenia," Ulmanu said.

24 July 2007
Emory Awards Honorary Doctorate to Longtime Carter Center Mental Health Supporter
Beverly Benson Long, a mental health pioneer whose efforts were instrumental in establishing the Rosalynn Carter Endowed Chair for Mental Health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree during Emory's 162nd commencement ceremony.


17 July 2007
Carter Center Consultant Norman Borlaug Receives Congressional Gold Medal for Food Research
Norman Borlaug, Nobel peace laureate and senior consultant of the Carter Center's Agriculture Program, was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal here July 17 for his work on high-yield, disease-resistant varieties of wheat credited with starting the "Green revolution" and alleviating starvation in India and Pakistan in the 1960s.

23 February 2007
Reporters Find Inspiration in Mental Health Stories
In South Africa, men view depression as a sign of weakness. So when veteran journalist Marion Scher wrote a story on the topic for the South African magazine Men's Health, she was thrilled that the men she interviewed allowed her to use their real names.


27 September 2006
Removing the Scar of Guinea Worm Disease: One Village at a Time
The muddy pond is as brown as the hillsides surrounding it... 


25 September 2006
Carter Center Calls for Better Mental Health Care for All Georgians
Five-foot-six-inches tall, Angela Ford's weight has varied from 90 pounds to her current 216.


31 August 2006
Election Renews Hope for Family in War-Torn Democratic Republic of the Congo
The afternoon sun catches Yayu Zonveni's face near the door of her otherwise shadowy home in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).