Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Delegation Conclude Health Tour to Africa

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CONTACT: In Atlanta, Emily Staub
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ATLANTA…Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter,  with a delegation of senior-level Carter Center officials, concluded their two-week tour of Africa today.  The Feb. 6-16 visit called international attention to health needs among impoverished communities in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Ghana.  

During the delegation's final stop - in Nigeria - President Carter met with President Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo to request further governmental support to help Carter Center-assisted programs combat schistosomiasis and other neglected diseases.

In Ethiopia, President Carter attended the Feb. 13 opening meeting of the Ethiopian Public Health Training Initiative's Replication Conference in Addis Ababa. The conference, the first of its kind, illustrated 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.    

President Carter and Government of  Southern Sudan Minister of Health Dr. Theophilus Ochang Lotti encouraged top officials of the Government of Southern Sudan  to continue their progress in conquering two of the region's most debilitating scourges—Guinea worm disease and trachoma--during a Feb. 10 session of the National Assembly. The previous day, President Carter and Lions Clubs International President Jimmy Ross encouraged Sudan's local Lions Club to participate in the fight against two blinding diseases affecting the country—river blindness and trachoma.

During his Feb. 8 visit to Ghana, President Carter met with President John Agyekum Kufuor to discuss that country's continued efforts to eliminate Guinea worm disease.  

Links to press releases from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Ghana, with photos, at left.

Delegation members included 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 met with African dignitaries and visited rural communities in an effort to bring global awareness to the prevalence of preventable diseases in communities in the four countries. 

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 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.

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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.