Carter Center Peace and Health Feature Stories

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.

Nov. 26, 2012
Brandon Kohrt: Working to Improve Mental Healthcare in Liberia One Story at a Time
A keyboard, an Internet connection, and a comfy coffee shop chair is one way to do research.  But it's not the way for Dr. Brandon Kohrt, consultant to the Carter Center's Mental Health Liberia Project, who needs a good off-road vehicle and a compassionate ear to gather information about the beliefs, feelings, and experiences Liberians have surrounding mental illnesses.

Nov. 19, 2012
From the Field: Sierra Leoneans Participate in Historic Presidential and Parliamentary Elections
The Nov. 17, 2012, presidential and parliamentary elections were the first self-administered elections to be conducted in Sierra Leone since the end of the civil war in 2002, representing an important test for the country's democratic consolidation.

Oct. 22, 2012
Meet Hajan Hassan: Surgery Brings Hope to Nigerien Grandmother
It was late afternoon in Dorum, southern Niger, when a man and his elderly mother rode in on a motorcycle. The woman's calm façade belied the excruciating pain she felt. An hour-long ride outdoors through dusty roads in the midday sun comprised some of the worst conditions a woman with an advanced eye disease could face. But as agonizing as it was, the journey likely saved her eyesight.

Oct. 12, 2012
Carter Center Works to Protect Congolese Children in Mines
In Katanga Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), thousands of children spend their days digging, breaking stones, and transporting and washing minerals, risking exposure to dangerous levels of radiation, potential pulmonary diseases, and physical and sexual abuse by peers and adults.

Sept. 17, 2012
Meet Egyptian Fatma Emam
A human rights activist and blogger, Fatma Emam fights each day for women's rights and gender equality in conservative society.

Sept. 11, 2012
Carter Center Workshops Reduce Partisanship in Venezuela's Electoral Reporting
The Carter Center is encouraging less partisan and more professional media reporting on Venezuela's electoral process through a series of workshops ahead of the country's Oct. 7 presidential election, offering one of the few spaces where journalists from diverse media participate together in the polarized society.

Sept. 10, 2012
Changing Headlines and Minds: Mental Health Journalism Fellowships Impact Romania
"The Carter Center has changed my life completely," says Emilia Chiscop, 41, a former Rosalynn Carter Fellow for Mental Health Journalism.

Sept. 4, 2012
The Carter Center at 30: Champion for Human Rights
Since President Carter's groundbreaking efforts in the White House to place human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy, the goal of securing human rights for all — civil, political, social, and economic rights — has driven the Carter Center's work to advance peace and health in more than 70 nations.

Aug. 20, 2012
Bringing Justice to Rural Liberians, One Village at a Time
For residents of Bor Town, Grand Bassa County, Liberia, a trip to the nearest magistrate's office to solve a dispute isn't just an expense that many in this subsistence-farming community cannot afford; it is also a major trip — eight hours walking by footpath, one way.

Aug. 6, 2012
Guinea Worm Campaign Closes In on Success
With fewer than 1,100 worldwide cases of Guinea worm disease reported in 2011, and fewer than 500 cases expected during 2012, experts believe the quarter-century-long eradication campaign, led by The Carter Center, is at a crucial tipping point.

July 30, 2012
The Carter Center at 30:  A Voice for Mental Health Care
Under the leadership of former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, the Carter Center's Mental Health Program has increased awareness about mental health issues, informed public policy, and reduced stigma and discrimination against those with mental illnesses.

July 16, 2012
Egypt Voters Hopeful for Country's Future
In June, Egyptians chose the first democratically elected president in the country's history, and despite the challenging circumstances of the process, many voters still felt the moment's importance.

April 9, 2012
The Carter Center at 30: Leader in Disease Eradication and Elimination
The Carter Center has become a global leader in the eradication and elimination of diseases, focusing efforts to build health and hope in some of the poorest and most isolated places on earth.

April 2, 2012
South Sudan: Carter Center Helps New Country Build Democratic Foundations
The Carter Center's peace programs have retained a presence in South Sudan after observing the 2011 referendum on independence in the hopes of contributing to a lasting peace and the establishment of strong democratic foundations. The country faces many challenges as it struggles to establish itself as the world's newest nation. The excitement of independence has dissipated as political, economic, and security risks escalate, including border disputes with its northern neighbor Sudan; interethnic violence in South Sudan; and unresolved conflict about distribution of oil revenues that has resulted in the shut-down of the oil pipeline and 98 percent of the country's income.

March 26, 2012
Meet Dr. Zerihun Tadesse Gebrelassie
Zerihun Tadesse Gebrelassie barely remembers his mother rushing his baby brother to a hospital in Ethiopia.  Many patients, long lines, and few health workers made her wish she had a relative — maybe one who was a nurse — who could help her son.  His little brother survived, but Dr. Zerihun says his mother never forgot that scene.

March 2, 2012
Catching Flies, Monitoring River Blindness in Mexico and Guatemala
For health workers in Mexico and Guatemala, the start of the new year meant major change. Thanks to the efforts of the Carter Center-sponsored Onchocerciasis Elimination Program of the Americas (OEPA), the two Latin American countries have interrupted transmission of river blindness (onchocerciasis) nationwide.

Jan. 30, 2012
The Carter Center at 30: Pioneer of Election Observation
During 2012, The Carter Center celebrates three decades of waging peace, fighting disease, and building hope.  This is the first in a series of anniversary features highlighting the Center's global impact since its founding.

Jan. 30, 2012
Regional Town Hall Meetings Promote Vision for Revitalizing Georgia's Mental Health Care System
On a cold December afternoon in 2011, the picture of a smiling teenage girl illuminated the darkened Ivan Allen Pavilion at The Carter Center. Her name was Sarah Crider. More than five years ago, at the age of 14, Sarah died from a preventable complication during treatment at a state-run psychiatric hospital in Atlanta. Her story was one of several cases of patient neglect brought to light in a 2007 Atlanta Journal-Constitution exposé of Georgia's crumbling mental health care system.

Jan. 23, 2012
Salissou Kane:  Niger's Trachoma Control Campaign Employs Lessons Learned in Guinea Worm Fight
Completely eliminating a disease from a country twice the size of Texas is no easy task. Salissou Kane, the Carter Center's country representative for Niger learned this time and again during more than two decades fighting Guinea worm in his homeland. Now that the disease has been wiped out nationwide, Kane is using his hard-won knowledge of Niger's complex multicultural communities to tackle to the bacterial eye disease trachoma.

Jan. 11, 2012
On The Ground in Cairo: Carter Center Delegation Witnesses Third Phase of Egypt's Parliamentary Elections
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has joined a 40-member Carter Center delegation to witness the third phase of Egypt's parliamentary elections Jan. 10-11.  The delegation, deployed in Egypt since mid-November for the three-phase election, represents 21 countries.

Jan. 10, 2012
After the Earthquake: Covering Mental Health in Haiti
2010-2011 Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellows Ramin Talaie and Jocelyn Zuckerman discuss their project of reporting on mental health issues among Haitians in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake.

Jan. 3, 2012
Communities Rally to Stop River Blindness in Chiapas, Mexico
On a warm spring day in the state of Chiapas, villagers in the small hamlet of Jose Maria de Morelos walk uphill on the town's only paved road to reach a small complex of school buildings. But today is not a school day; today, the river blindness elimination brigade is meeting at the school.

Jan. 3, 2012
Building Better Lives, Brick by Brick
The Carter Center works in some of the world's most remote and impoverished communities. These are areas beyond where the road ends, with no power grid, and limited access to outside markets. For health workers striving to eliminate Guinea worm disease in South Sudan, this means many essential items, like building supplies for a new case containment center, are virtually non-existent. However, with a little ingenuity, the staff members of the South Sudan Guinea Worm Eradication Program are blazing their own path, and building the bricks needed for success.

Jan. 3, 2012
Dispatches from Egypt: Carter Center Witnesses Reflect on Election Voices, Symbols
Carter Center witnesses across Egypt are observing history in the making as the country holds its first free elections in the post-Mubarak era. Egypt's People's Assembly (lower house of parliament) elections are taking place in three rounds that started in late-November and will finish in January.  Each round takes place in different regions of Egypt. More than 40 parties and 6,000 candidates are competing for the 498-seat assembly, which will oversee the constitutional legislation.