25th Anniversary Q&A with Former U.S. President
Jimmy Carter and Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter

05 April 2007

In this Q&A, President and Mrs. Carter reflect on the Carter Center's 25 years of waging peace, fighting disease, and building hope around the world.

What have you tried to accomplish through The Carter Center in your post-presidency?  
 
President Carter: When Rosalynn and I left the White House, much work remained to achieve the dreams we had for furthering human rights and peace worldwide.  We believed our influence and relationships with world leaders could be used to build partnerships to continue making progress toward these goals. Self-governance, freedom from political persecution, adequate food, and access to healthcare—these rights give people self-respect, human dignity, and hope for the future. Without them, we will never see a world at peace.
 

How has The Carter Center grown since it was founded in 1982?
 
President Carter: My original vision was that the Center would be a small and secluded place, like Camp David, where we could resolve existing or potential conflicts among nations or between adversaries within a country. We later found that one of the best ways to promote peace is to let people choose their own leaders. We helped pioneer the field of election monitoring and have observed more than 67 elections in troubled countries struggling to achieve democracy, then, after elections, worked with them to strengthen public institutions to protect new freedoms. Another area we did not anticipate was having programs to alleviate unnecessary suffering from preventable diseases and hunger. These are also critical to preventing conflict and achieving the dream of a world at peace. What has evolved is an array of programs advancing human rights.   
 
Mrs. Carter:  The Carter Center has developed into an organization that is trusted. People feel that the Center is an honest broker and really cares about them. They will unburden their problems, and we try to help them. This fulfilling role for us and for the Center is something we never could have imagined when we first came home from the White House, thinking we would be bored to death the rest of our lives. The Center truly has become a permanent force for positive change in the world.
 

Can you give real-life examples of how The Carter Center improves lives?  
 
Mrs. Carter: Election day in a country that has never had an election before is so exciting. I
remember going to Liberia for an election after they had been at war for many years. Early in the morning, we went to watch the preparation for polls to open. It was still dark when we arrived, and voters already were in long snaking lines—women with babies on their backs or slung around their chests.  It was drizzling rain, and some told us they had been there for hours waiting for the polls to open. They had waited many years to vote; what were a few more hours? So I went down one line asking them why they came out so early to vote, and the answer was  "peace."  They wanted peace. It made me cry.
 
President Carter:  In 1988, I visited a village in Ghana not far from the capital, Accra.  The
people drank water from what we would call a mud hole, a little pond that fills up during the rainy season. They didn't realize this was the source of their affliction. In this village of 500, half of the people were lying under trees around the town square. One of the first people I saw, and one who sticks in my mind and in my heart, was a beautiful young woman about 19 years old. When I approached her, I thought she was holding a baby in her arms. But when I got closer, I found she was holding in her arm her right breast, which was horribly swollen. The Guinea worm was coming out of the nipple, and she was stricken with intense pain, which she tried to conceal while I was there. I had to control my tears. Of 3.5 million cases of Guinea worm when we began the eradication campaign in 1986, today about 25,000 remain.  
 

What do you think has been the greatest accomplishment of The Carter Center so far?
 
Mrs. Carter:  All of our projects are important, so it's difficult to choose. I guess the year that Jimmy and The Carter Center prevented two wars, one in Haiti and one in North Korea, is especially memorable.  It's also thrilling to see the impact of our disease control work in the field. Just as when someone casts a first ballot, you can really see lives being changed by this work. I'm also grateful for the progress we've made in helping to diminish the stigma against mental illness. Our journalism fellowships truly are helping to increase understanding and destroy myths about mental illnesses.
 
President Carter: I think we have demonstrated that a very small, nongovernmental
organization can be highly effective. I believe we also have shown that, although it's not easy, we can cross the chasm between the rich and poor on earth.  Potential donors have come to see that people in Africa and other distant regions deserve our help.  They have proven in thousands of cases that with a little bit of help and guidance, with the right tools and knowledge, they can be empowered to overcome their own problems.   
 

What is your vision for The Carter Center in the future?  
 
Mrs. Carter: We have made very careful plans about the future of The Carter Center. We have raised an endowment to help finance the Center when Jimmy and I will no longer actively raise funds. We also have formed a partnership with Emory University, so that the activism of The Carter Center in 65 nations will be supported and enhanced by the academic and research base of a great university. In addition, several councils of world leaders at the Center are in place to sustain the Center's access to leaders at the highest levels in each region where we work.    
 
President Carter: In my Nobel Peace Prize lecture, I quoted my high school teacher, Ms. Julia Coleman, who said that we must accommodate changing times, but cling to unchanging principles. That's been an epigrammatic description of the philosophy that has permeated The Carter Center and my own life. I hope we always will stay on the cutting edge of technology and knowledge and medicines but try to adhere to basic principles of morality and honesty and integrity and peace and justice and respect of human life. And, I hope that as an organization, we will never let the fear of failure be an excuse for not trying.