'The Carter Center' by CRC Ambassador Steven Robinson

The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, highlights the Camp David Accords and other initiatives for peace. With the Director of the Carter Center, Barry Nickelsberg, I gained insight into Peace Programs and Health Programs that are improving the quality of life for people in over 80 countries worldwide.

The Leon Charney Diplomacy Program at Florida Atlantic University gives students the unique opportunity to act in the role of diplomats in the National Model United Nations Conferences. Trained by FAU Political Science professor, Dr. Morton, student delegates learn how influential the power of diplomacy is when solving current world issues. During my time in the Diplomacy Program I prepared as a delegate of Syria, Norway, and the United Kingdom to compete in the Washington D.C. and New York Conferences. At the November 8-11 2019 DC NMUN Conference, I met with Tzili Charney and spoke with her about the exceptional opportunity that the Diplomacy Program gives FAU student delegates. I expressed how research and activity through the program has broadened my world view and perspective in the realm of international affairs. Since I live near Atlanta, Georgia and I told her that I was going home for the holidays, Tzili suggested that I visit the Cater Center in Atlanta as an Ambassador of the Leon Charney Resolution Center, in order to learn about the ongoing endeavors carried out by President Carter. One of his most momentous achievements being when he established the Camp David Accords and brokered a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. During the diplomacy course at FAU, we learned about Leon Charney’s involvement as a back-door channel advisor to President Carter during the Camp David Accords and it was fascinating to follow the Camp David exhibition in the presidential library.

The Carter Center’s Peace Programs are focused on the promotion of governance per transparent democratic means. Through monitoring 110 elections in 39 different countries since the late 1980s, the Carter Center continues to strive towards establishing the fair administration of justice globally. The three most recent monitored elections occurred in Tunisia during the fall of 2019. Over 90 Carter Center observers were sent to Tunisia to monitor the presidential, parliamentary, and presidential runoff elections to ensure a smooth transition of leadership. In addition to election monitoring, Director Nickelsberg noted that the ‘Rule of Law Program' is also effective in advancing justice. This Peace Program targets educating citizens to understand government policies. By developing government accountability to increase the overall access to information law, citizens are enabled to appropriately exercise their human rights. Director Nickelsberg particularly acclaimed the ‘Women and Access to Information’ project. This Rule of Law Program works to address poverty, illiteracy, violence, and other gender inequities that women face due to the lack of enforcement and access to information law.

Similar to the mission of the Peace Programs, the Carter Center’s Health Programs aim to implement sustainable methods to control then eradicate illnesses that plague people in different regions of the world. Director Nickelsberg stated that these efforts have been most influential in addressing guinea worm, river blindness, and trachoma epidemics. Guinea worm is a parasite contracted from stagnant water sources, which incapacitates people for extended periods of time. In 1986 this disease affected approximately 3.5 million people in 21 African and Asian countries by disabling their ability to grow food, work, or execute other active functions. Through the collaboration of the Carter Center, its partners, and the countries themselves, guinea worm had been reduced to a total of 28 cases worldwide in 2018. Currently eliminated in 17 countries, the Carter Center’s ‘Guinea Worm Eradication Program’ continues to work towards eliminating this disease in South Sudan, Mali, Chad, Ethiopia, and Angola.

River blindness is an infection spread by black flies that causes intense itching, skin discoloration, and eventual blindness. In order to combat this disease, the Carter Center has distributed over 240 million treatments of the preventative medicine Mectizan in Africa and Latin America. As a result, river blindness transmission in Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Guatemala has been eliminated by the Carter Center’s ‘Onchocerciasis Elimination Program for the Americas’. This Health Program continues its efforts in Brazil, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sudan, Uganda, and Venezuela. To commemorate this tremendous progress the ‘Sightless Among Miracles’ sculpture created by R.T. Wallen was donated to the Carter Center by John and Rebecca Moores in 1995.

The bacterial eye infection, trachoma, is the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness that is most commonly found in communities that lack appropriate hygiene or clean water. This disease can be found in over 50 countries, accounting for an estimated 157 million people at risk worldwide. The Carter Center’s Trachoma Control Program implements the ‘SAFE’ control strategy in Ethiopia, Mali, Niger, Sudan, South Sudan, and Uganda. This ‘SAFE’ control strategy stands for: Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial cleanliness, and Environmental improvement. The work of this approach led to Ghana becoming the first sub Saharan African country to eliminate trachoma as a public health concern, validated by the World Health Organization in 2018. The Carter Center has also helped facilitate the distribution of over 173 million doses of the trachoma fighting antibiotic Zithromax around the world. Furthermore the ‘Trachoma Control Program’ has supported the construction of 3.6 million latrines since 2002 in order to reduce breeding sites for flies that spread the disease. Director Nickelsberg emphasized that over the past 8 months, 100 thousand latrines have been constructed in Ethiopia alone. Social norms and customs in Ethiopia prevent women from using the bathroom during daylight hours. By providing bathroom access during the day, these latrines serve in reducing the number of Ethiopian women who suffer from urinary tract infections and bowl obstructions. For this reason, Jimmy Carter often refers to himself as the ‘Potty Man of Ethiopia’.

These Peace Programs and Health Programs discussed with Director Nickelsberg are just samples of the Carter Center’s dedicated body of work towards improving lives globally. Current and future initiatives such as these will continue to expand the Carter legacy of service for the betterment of all people.