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2023 Major Media Highlights

Read the latest news coverage on ؾ, our experts, and our work around the world.

As former U.S. President Jimmy Carter turns 99 some seven months after he entered hospice, the CEO of ؾ, Paige Alexander, reflects on his life and legacy.

Carteris celebrating President Carter's 99th birthday in a unique way. More than 14,000 people have submitted birthday messages and pictures for a digital mosaic honoring Carter’s life and legacy.

As Jimmy Carter, America’s longest-living president, turns 99 on Oct. 1, his grandson shares what he believes is the secret to his grandfather’s long life: exercise.

“They’re coming to the end, but they’re together,” says grandson Jason Carter. “And this is exactly as you would want this last chapter to play out.”

Former President Jimmy Carter’s grandson and Center Board Chair Jason Carter pays tribute to his grandfather and provides an update on his health. President Carter turns 99 on Oct. 1.

Published by Pushkin.

Hear from the Carter Center's Donald Hopkins as he takes us back to the 1960s in Sierra Leone, where he discovered that successfully eradicating smallpox could be a feasible goal worldwide.

BBC News | Zimbabwe Election President Rejects Election Criticism (Interview with Democracy Program Director David Carroll)

Carter Center expert David Carroll, who leads the Center’s initiative on standards and best practices in international election observation, discusses Zimbabwe’s election and key findings from Carter Center observers. Learn more »

Summary of the 35nd Meeting of the International Task Force for Disease Eradication, 2–3 May 2023

Published by WHO’s Weekly Epidemiology Record, 2023, 98, 327–334.

The 35th meeting of the International Task Force for Disease Eradication (ITFDE) was convened in a hybrid (virtual and in-person) format at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America, on 2–3 May 2023 to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on eradication and elimination programmes. The meeting was a follow-up to one in October 2020 on the potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the pillars of effective public health programmes and the result if delivery of necessary effective public health programmes to underserved populations was impeded. Learn more »

Carter Center CEO Paige Alexander Is 'Willing to Go Where Others Are Not'

Published by Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Atlanta Business Chronicle names Carter Center CEO Paige Alexander a recipient of their Most Admired CEO Awards which highlight leaders who propel the performance of their organization and strengthen the fabric of the Atlanta community. Learn more »

State Affairs Georgia | A Year after Passage, More is Happening with the Mental Health Parity Act Than You Think. (PDF)

Published by State Affairs Georgia.

Eve Byrd, director of Mental Health Programs for the Carter Center, said her team has made some recommendations for improving the insurance department’s new site, “so that it’s more consumer-friendly and includes language accessibility, which is mandated in the Parity Act.” Learn more »

Published by Voice of America.

In May, the World Health Organization certified that the countries of Benin and Mali had eliminated trachoma as a public health problem. Six countries in Africa have reached that milestone. Carterbelieves its program in Mali has helped avert blindness in more than 5 million people, and the antibiotics used to combat trachoma also help prevent infant mortality, the Center said.

A deadly competition between two rival generals in Sudan has derailed anticipated prospects for a transition to civilian rule. As always, it is the Sudanese people who are paying the price, with hundreds of civilians killed or wounded, and more than a million people internally displaced or crossing as refugees into neighboring countries.

Blank Foundation, One of the South’s Biggest Philanthropies, Puts Focus on Housing, Environment, and More

While the plan for the foundation’s mental health and well being is not final, it has made some awards that signal its approach. Among them: a $500,000 grant to the Carter Center to ensure landmark mental-health legislation signed into law in 2022 in Georgia helps as many state residents as possible. Blank, who is also owner of the Atlanta Falcons football and Atlanta United soccer teams, has had a long relationship with former president Jimmy Carter, said Paige Alexander, the Carter Center’s chief executive. She credited the Blank foundation with “seeing what’s on the horizon” and understanding that Covid has had an impact on the mental health of people from all walks of life. Learn more »

The former first lady's public dementia diagnosis is keeping mental health and caregiving — two topics she's dedicated her career to — at the forefront of the American conversation.

The wife of former President Jimmy Carter “continues to live happily at home with her husband, enjoying spring ... and visits with loved ones,” the Carter Center said.

Mrs. Carter has been the nation’s leading mental health advocate for more than half a century — first in the Georgia governor’s mansion, then in the White House and later at ؾ.

Published by WABE.

Recently, Carterannounced that trachoma is no longer a public health problem in Mali. Kelly Callahan, the director of ؾ's Trachoma Control Program, stated that people simply need access to resources and tools that will change their lives. In this episode of WABE's “Closer Look” with Rose Scott, Callahan discusses the Center's global fight to eliminate the highly contagious, preventable tropical disease.

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter, 95, has dementia, the Carter family announced on May 30. Dementia, which is not a disease but rather a cluster of symptoms that impact thinking and memory skills severely enough to interfere with daily life, affects about 1 in 10 older Americans.

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter has been diagnosed with dementia, Carterannounced on Tuesday. "She continues to live happily at home with her husband, enjoying spring in Plains and visits with loved ones," Cartersaid in a statement.

Rosalynn Carter, the wife of former President Jimmy Carter and a longtime advocate for greater access to mental health care, has dementia, the Carter Center said on Tuesday. The announcement came just over three months after it said that Jimmy Carter, 98, had entered hospice care at the couple’s home in Plains, Ga.

Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter has been diagnosed with dementia. That news comes about three months after it was announced her husband, former President Jimmy Carter, was moving into hospice care. Caregiving has been a major focus of Mrs. Carter’s life and work. William Brangham looks at that legacy and the impact dementia has on millions of families.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has been a longtime source of inspiration, counsel, and wisdom to many in the global health community. For decades, he has led the campaign to make Guinea worm disease the second-ever human disease (after smallpox) to be eradicated, and he has championed many other health causes, from the elimination of several other neglected tropical diseases to mental health and HIV/AIDs.

Just a few hours before President Carter underwent his first radiation treatment for brain cancer, he spoke of his hope, in the time he had left, to purge the world of a parasitic worm disease. That was in 2015. “I’d like the last Guinea worm to die before I do,” the 39th president told reporters at the Carter Center.

Published by Voice of America.

“We had six human cases in Chad, five human cases in South Sudan, and one in Ethiopia and one in the Central African Republic on the border with Chad,” Adam Weiss, director of the Carter Center’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program, told VOA during a recent Skype interview.

World NTD Day 2023 Video

Jan. 30, 2023, marked the fourth annual World NTD Day, highlighting the global community’s commitment to ending neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) that cause immeasurable suffering among the world’s most marginalized communities. Together Carterand our partners celebrated hard-earned progress to #EndtheNeglect and #BeatNTDs. Learn more »

Published by Voice of America.

According to the Carter Center, there were only 13 human cases of Guinea worm disease last year, pushing the illness closer to eradication. The Atlanta-based center was co-founded by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn Carter.

Published by Voice of America.

Cartersaid recently that only 13 human cases of Guinea worm disease were reported worldwide last year. That is a major drop from 3.5 million cases of infected people in 1986. Audio package: https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/6935557.html

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Carter, King Centers Call for ‘Dialogue’ in Atlanta Training Center Conflict

A week after the death of a protester marked a new, deadly milestone in the turbulent saga surrounding Atlanta’s new public safety training center, the conflict continues to elicit commentary from far and wide. Learn more »

Adam Weiss, director of the Carter Center's Guinea Worm Eradication Program, saw his first case of Guinea worm disease as a Peace Corps volunteer in 2003. “I had never heard of Guinea worm before arriving in Ghana,” he said.

When doctors first started trying to eradicate Guinea worm disease nearly four decades ago, more than 3.5 million people were infected. Last year, that number dropped to 13. Donald R. Hopkins, a special advisor for Guinea worm eradication at the Carter Center, tells As It Happens host Nil Köksal how they did it.

When the Carter Center assumed leadership of the global Guinea Worm Eradication Program in 1986, about 3.5 million people in Africa and Asia were afflicted with the debilitating illness caused by the parasite.

The number of cases of a painful and debilitating tropical illness fell last year to a record low, fuelling hopes that it will soon become the second human disease in history to be eradicated. Only 13 cases of guinea worm disease were reported worldwide in 2022, a provisional figure that if confirmed would be the smallest ever documented, the US-based Carter Center has said.

The World's host Marco Werman speaks with Adam Weiss, director of the Carter Center's Guinea Worm Eradication Program. Cartersays Guinea worm disease is close to be eradicated. Only 13 human cases were reported worldwide last year.

Associated Press: Guinea Worm Eradication Effort Enters ‘Most Difficult’ Phase

“We are truly in the midst of that last mile and experiencing firsthand that it is going to be a very long and arduous last mile,” Adam Weiss, director of ؾ’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program, told The Associated Press. “Not so much as it taking more than the next seven years – five to seven years – but just knowing that it’s going to be a slow roll to get to zero.” Learn more »

Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation Awards CarterGrant for Advancing Mental Health in Georgia

In response to the growing mental health crisis in America, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation has made the first round of grants from its new Mental Health and Well-Being giving area, totaling more than $5 million. Learn more »

Carter Center's Jennie Lincoln, senior advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean, shares her thoughts on what 2023 has in store for Latin America.

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