Health Stories: Real Lives, Real Change

’s health programs fill vacuums in global health, helping to prevent needless suffering and build hope for millions of the world’s poorest people. Follow the links below to hear some of their stories.

Leading Journal Honors s’ Public Health Legacy

The foremost journal of tropical medicine in the United States has published a supplement honoring the public health legacy of former President Jimmy and the late First Lady Rosalynn . In a demonstration of technical expertise and the respect carries in that field, the supplement features 16 articles authored or co-authored by Center experts. Learn more »

Country Staff Fight for Health Amid Conflict

Helping countries control or eliminate diseases is no easy feat — helping them do so when they’re in the midst of armed conflict is exponentially more challenging. Learn more »

Guinea Worm Numbers Point to Strong Surveillance

Humankind has been battling Guinea worm disease for millennia, and since the 1980s, has been leading the charge to rid the world of this parasite. Incredible progress has been made in recent decades. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Honoring Rosalynn Through Mental Health Parity

Last November, we lost one of our leading lights with the passing of ’s trailblazing co-founder, former First Lady Rosalynn . Learn more »

Notes from the Field: Words, Images Count in Mental Health Reporting

I have three messages for journalists writing about mental health: Words matter. Images matter. You matter. Learn more »

In Honor of World Malaria Day, Celebrates the Dominican Republic’s Receipt of PAHO’s Malaria Champions of the Americas Prize

In honor of World Malaria Day, celebrates the Dominican Republic Ministry of Health, which received a 2023 Malaria Champions of the Americas prize from the Pan American Health Organization for its notable progress in eliminating malaria in Los Tres Brazos neighborhood of the capital, Santo Domingo. Learn more »

Community Banks on End of Malaria

Maria de los Santos has had enough of malaria. De los Santos, who operates a tiny community bank in San Juan de la Maguana, Dominican Republic, experienced fever, chills, and a less common symptom, severe itching, during a bout with the mosquito-borne illness. She kept the bank open and continued to look after her family despite being sick with a potentially fatal tropical disease. Learn more »

Hispaniola Makes Strides Against Disfiguring Disease

It was many years ago, but Mercedes Sola remembers when her illness came on. She was 30 years old and pregnant with her third daughter. Learn more »

Heroes in the Field: Makoy Samuel Yibi

Guinea worm once infected 3.5 million people every year. Thanks to heroes like Makoy Samuel Yibi, that number dropped to 14* last year. Learn more »

The Late Rosalynn Honored for Long Life of Service

Thousands of admirers from all walks of life honored former U.S. First Lady Rosalynn Smith , who died at home in Plains, Georgia, on Nov. 19, 2023, at age 96. Learn more »

Heroic Worker Carries Patient Down Mountain on His Back

The quest for health among neglected people is marked by daily acts of heroism. Take Lodai Peter Linus’ actions. Learn more »

Center Stands Out at Annual Tropical Medicine Meeting

sent a large contingent to the 72nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), held Oct. 18-22 in Chicago. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Chadians Proud of Guinea Worm Efforts

I recently returned from a visit to the nation of Chad, the central point of our fight against Guinea worm disease. As you may know, has been working to eradicate this devasting parasitic disease since 1986, when cases around the world numbered almost 3.5 million a year. Learn more »

Journalist, Teen Explore Mental Health Issues

Micah Fink will never forget the day his teenager, Sydney, asked him, “Dad, is it normal for so many kids to be thinking about killing themselves?” Though he found the question alarming, he didn’t know quite how to respond. He shied away from an in-depth discussion, hoping these thoughts were temporary. Later, he realized that his response shut down what could have been an important conversation. Eventually, he decided to broach the topic further. Learn more »

Human, Animal Guinea Worm Numbers Improve in Chad

Seven countries reported finding Guinea worms in either humans or animals last year. Chad reported the highest numbers by far. Learn more »

Project Boosts Media Coverage of Mental Health

and The Center for Public Integrity have partnered with newsrooms across the country to bolster news coverage on mental health access and parity. In the Q&A that follows, program manager Nora Fleming explains the Mental Health Parity Collaborative and its impact so far. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Changing Times, Unchanging Principles

By Paige Alexander, chief executive officer of

The announcement in February that former U.S. President Jimmy , ’s co-founder, was entering hospice care touched my heart. It prompted reflections on how the Center has grown and evolved while remaining true to our founders’ original vision. Learn more »

Blog | Thank You, Mrs. , for Sharing Your Story

By Eve Byrd, Director, Mental Health Program

It is human nature to want to be understood and accepted, so when people like Rosalynn and her family share their experiences with dementia, they provide a comforting connection to the more than 55 million people worldwide who have dementia diagnoses. Learn more »

Ethiopians Fight Guinea Worm Disease on All Fronts

From community engagement to water treatment and filtering to dog tethering, a cluster of villages in remote western Ethiopia is applying creative strategies to protect humans and animals from Guinea worm disease, and their diligence is paying off. Learn more »

President Jimmy , My Hero and Strength

By Makoy Samuel Yibi, Director, Guinea Worm Eradication Program, South Sudan Ministry of Health

Makoy Samuel Yibi first met former U.S. President Jimmy in 1995, after which they formed a strong relationship. In 2008, Yibi received the Jimmy and Rosalynn Award for Guinea Worm Eradication for his leadership in reducing cases of the disease in what is now South Sudan. He wrote the following elegy for his mentor and hero. Learn more »

CEO Visit Spotlights Initiatives in Sudan

has a long history in Sudan — in fact, 70% of the country’s population hadn’t even been born when we started working there. Learn more »

Meet the Unbreakable Antoinette Sainfabe

Life is hard enough in Haiti, with its profound poverty, natural disasters, and troubled political history. Add to the mix an insidious tropical disease that causes permanent disfigurement, and the result is misery that defies description. Learn more »

Website Visitors Express Love for President

is inviting the public to send messages of peace and comfort to President and his family via an online portal, and the response is overwhelming. As of 2 p.m. Tuesday (Feb. 21), more than 7,919 messages had been published, with waves of them continuing to arrive. Learn more »

Radio Reporter Amplifies Mental Health Issues

Many schoolchildren in Georgia don’t have the mental health resources they need. Fortunately, they have Ellen Eldridge to let the world know about the problem. Learn more »

Ethiopian Helps Others Perform Sight-Saving Surgery

Mulat Zerihun cares about the eyes and speaks from the heart. Learn more »

They’re on the Guinea Worm Front Lines

In 1986, Guinea worm disease afflicted an estimated 3.5 million people a year in 21 countries across Africa and Asia. In 2022, just 12 human cases were reported. Working closely with the countries and with support from donors and partners, leads the battle to eradicate the disease. Here are three stories from the frontlines. Learn more »

Peer-to-Peer Counseling Aids Women in Myanmar

By Masa Janjusevic, Center country representative, Myanmar

Myanmar is home to the world’s longest continuing civil war, spanning seven decades. The inevitable toll on mental health cannot be ignored, and recent events such as COVID-19 and economic decline have only intensified the unmet need for services. Learn more »

Blog | Center Health and Team Up to Support Election Workers

By Eve Byrd, Director, Mental Health Program

From the vantage point of a richly resourced and powerful country or society, it’s easy to believe that colonialism is a thing of the past. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The sad fact is that the effects of a colonial mind-set are alive and well in some corners of the global health community. Learn more »

Blog | We’re 40 and Looking Forward

By Paige Alexander, chief executive officer of

This fall has been an exciting time at . We celebrated the anniversary of our founding 40 years ago, President celebrated his 98th birthday, and we dedicated a 200-year-old Japanese bell on our campus. Learn more »

Blog | Colonialism Has No Place in Global Health

By Dr. Kashef Ijaz, Vice President, Health Programs, ; Kelly Callahan, M.P.H., Director, Trachoma Control Program, ; Dr. Emmanuel Miri, Nigeria Country Representative, ; Dr. Zerihun Tadesse, Ethiopia Country Representative,

From the vantage point of a richly resourced and powerful country or society, it’s easy to believe that colonialism is a thing of the past. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The sad fact is that the effects of a colonial mind-set are alive and well in some corners of the global health community. Learn more »

School Career Fair Sets 3rd-Grader on the Path of a Dream

In 2006, a relatively new development officer at , Madelle Hatch, took part in a career fair at Midvale Elementary School in an Atlanta suburb. Learn more »

Building Resilience: Center Trains Myanmar Women to Serve as Mental Health Peer Counselors

In Myanmar, the overwhelming combination of political conflict, COVID-19, and economic decline has resulted in an unprecedented mental health crisis. So when Eh Wah,* a social worker who deals with vulnerable youth in Yangon, learned that was piloting a peer-to-peer mental health services support program, she jumped at the opportunity to participate. Learn more »

As World Sight Day Nears, River Blindness is Fading

By Gregory S. Noland, director, River Blindness Elimination Program, and Dr. Kashef Ijaz, vice president, health programs,

World Sight Day is the second Thursday in October, and we at and our country offices are doing our part to preserve vision in vulnerable populations through our robust river blindness and trachoma programs. Learn more »

Blog | Abu Dhabi Summit Energizes Guinea Worm Campaign

By Adam Weiss, Director, Guinea Worm Eradication Program

Some of the hallmarks of the four-decade Guinea worm eradication campaign, led by , are its agility, data-driven decision making, deep-rooted partnerships, and commitment to prioritize the needs of the endemic countries. Learn more »

Blog | Trachoma Teams Persevere Despite Adversity

By Kelly Callahan, director, Trachoma Control Program

Public health work is always challenging, but some seasons are more challenging than others. And wow, have the last three years been challenging — especially in the part of Ethiopia where ’s Trachoma Control Program works. Learn more »

Blog | Include Youth in Seeking Mental Health Solutions

By Adalis Rojas, youth advocate and former Center Mental Health Program intern

As many depend on the younger generations to advocate for youth mental health awareness, it’s important to know what you can do now to support. Learn more »

Blog | Strong Partnerships Can Change the World

By Nicole Kruse, Interim Vice President of Development

A family reunion of sorts took place last month in Williamsburg, Virginia. It was the annual Center Weekend, when a limited number of friends and supporters gather to catch up with each other, hear from Center leadership and staff, and take part in various fun activities, including silent and live auctions. Learn more »

It’s Just 15 | Guinea Worm Eradication

We are down to the last mile in our mission to #DefeatGuineaWorm and are all set to welcome leaders from around the world to commit to #MissionZero. Learn more »

Guinea Worm Cases Reach Historic Low

Just 15 human cases of Guinea worm disease were reported in four countries in 2021, the lowest number ever recorded. When started leading the global eradication campaign in 1986, there were an estimated 3.5 million cases in 21 countries. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: We are 100% Committed to Ending Neglected Diseases

By Paige Alexander, chief executive officer of

This month, I was pleased to sign the Kigali Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases, signifying ’s 100% commitment to work with dozens of countries, donors, and organizational partners to tackle these terrible diseases Learn more »

Meet the Last Americans to Face River Blindness

The final bastion of river blindness in the Americas lies along the border of Brazil and Venezuela, where the nomadic Yanomami indigenous people reside in hard-to-reach, ring-shaped temporary communities in the Amazon rainforest called shaponos. Learn more »

Blog | In Memoriam: Dr. Stephen B. Blount, M.D., M.P.H.

By Paige Alexander, Chief Executive Officer, , and Dr. Kashef Ijaz, Vice President-Health Programs,

We at are grieving the unexpected passing of our friend and colleague, Dr. Stephen B. Blount, who had only recently retired after a remarkable career in global public health. Learn more »

Blog | With New Law, 2022 is the Year for Mental Health in Georgia

By Eve H. Byrd, Director, Center Mental Health Program

During the 2022 state legislative session, the Georgia General Assembly voted unanimously to pass the Mental Health Parity Act, ensuring that the state will enforce parity in insurance coverage for behavioral health care for the first time. Learn more »

Seize the Moment and End TB with ITFDE

The 33rd meeting, held March 14-15, 2022, at , focused on one of the leading causes of death by an infectious disease globally, yet paradoxically does not receive adequate attention: tuberculosis (TB). The ITFDE focus on TB was particularly timely as March 24 is World TB Day, whose theme this year — Invest to End TB, Save Lives — captures the urgency of the moment. Learn more »

Dedicated Team Tames Trachoma in Ethiopia

Distributing medication to fight trachoma in Ethiopia’s Amhara region is challenging under normal circumstances. It’s a huge area with a large population and mountainous terrain. Amazingly, an estimated 14 million people in the region are treated with antibiotics for trachoma every year. Our Ethiopian colleagues have always been remarkably dedicated, but the complications of the coronavirus pandemic have really shown what they’re made of. Learn more »

Blog | Support Groups Nurture Hope in Haiti

By Dr. Kashef Ijaz, vice president, Health Programs,

Haiti is frequently in the news for all the wrong reasons: devastating earthquakes, extreme poverty, rampant violent crime, political turmoil. is determined to bring Haiti hope in at least one way, in the area of public health. Learn more »

Doctor’s Long Career in Public Health Leads to Center

As the sole medical resident at a small health outpost in 1991 rural Pakistan, Kashef Ijaz did it all. He saw 50 to 100 patients a day from a neverending line outside his office. He sutured wounds, delivered babies, helped control malaria. He once helped an elderly man who was convinced that Ijaz’s stethoscope could cure his arthritis. Learn more »

Disease-Elimination Celebration Lights Up the Town

Seri village in Nigeria’s Plateau State marked World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day 2022 with a celebration that featured the lighting of hundreds of orange glow sticks. The village in Kanke Local Government Area joined about 100 other locales around the world that illuminated buildings and landmarks in orange to raise awareness of the fight against NTDs. Learn more »

Journalist’s Interest in Mental Health Takes Flight

The travel industry was one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Business and leisure travel stopped abruptly and have yet to fully recover. While many of us wondered last year when we might take our next airplane trip to visit far-flung family and friends, those who work in the airline industry feared for their jobs and health. Learn more »

Blog | River Blindness Elimination Signals Need for Partnership and Persistence

By Dr. Kashef Ijaz, vice president, Health Programs, andGregory Noland, director, Center River Blindness Elimination Program

The elimination of river blindness in Nigeria’s Plateau and Nasarawa states, as confirmed by a recent analysis, shows the value of partnership and persistence in the fight against neglected tropical diseases. Learn more »

River Blindness Declines Along Brazil-Venezuela Border

After years of hard work and international cooperation, the onchocerciasis elimination programs of Brazil and Venezuela have confined river blindness to the smallest area yet in the Amazon Rainforest. The achievement comes despite the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Our Practices Change; Our Principles Don’t

By Paige Alexander, chief executive officer of

President frequently reminds us of his high school teacher’s words of wisdom: “We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.” At , we practice this precept by holding fast to our founding commitments to defend human rights and relieve human suffering while continually seeking new and improved ways to accomplish our humanitarian goals. Learn more »

Blog | Eradication Is a Difficult, Lengthy Affair

By Dr. Kashef Ijaz, vice president, health programs

Only one human disease has ever been eradicated; that was smallpox, in 1980 — a tremendous victory for humanity. The term "eradication" is defined as permanent reduction to zero of the worldwide occurrence of infection caused by a specific pathogen, with no risk of its return. Learn more »

Blog | Journalists Help Bring Discussion of Mental Health into Mainstream

By Dr. Kashef Ijaz, vice president, health programs, and Eve H. Byrd, director, mental health program

Journalists and the field of journalism are often criticized, in part because they have a habit of telling us truths we don’t want to know or discussing topics we don’t want to think about. But good journalists provide a public service by telling us things we need or ought to know and by making us think. What they write or say can affect the way society looks at an issue and educate people about available resources. Learn more »

Meet Berihun Takele

Berihun Takele wants to do everything he can to help his community in Ethiopia’s Amhara region to thrive. Not only is he a kebele leader (similar to a village chief), but he also leads a team of volunteers who protect the village, called Wudi Gemzu, against river blindness by distributing medication and education and catching black flies for testing for the disease. Learn more »

Blog | As General Assembly Gathers, Give the WHO Its Due

By Paige Alexander, chief executive officer, and Kashef Ijaz, vice president, Health Programs

The 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly opens Tuesday, Sept. 14. It is a time of great anticipation as representatives of 193 member states come together in the great hall to discuss issues and set an agenda for the coming year. World political leaders, including President Joe Biden, will give speeches that will be closely watched for clues and outright declarations regarding a wide variety of international challenges, global health among them. Learn more »

Guinea Worm Warrior’s Weapon is a Song

Regina Lotubai Lomare Lochilangole is a natural born motivator. She created an original song and dance to teach her South Sudan community about Guinea worm disease symptoms and prevention and rewards available for reporting suspected cases. The song was so effective that South Sudan’s Ministry of Health created a position for her within the Guinea Worm Eradication Program, titled Social Mobilizer. Lotubai now travels to different parts of the country to train other volunteers to become social mobilizers. Learn more »

Blog | 24 Fun Facts about First Lady Rosalynn

By Susan Hunsinger, program associate, and Katie Conner, former senior program associate, mental health program

Rosalynn is best known for her advocacy for mental health issues, caregiver issues, as co-founder of and founder of the Rosalynn Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism. But there’s more to this "steel magnolia." Here are 24 facts about Rosalynn . Learn more »

Blog | Eradication Isn't Over Until It's Over

By Dr. Kashef Ijaz,vice president, health programs

Completely wiping out a disease is nearly impossible. In all of history, only one human disease has been eradicated — smallpox, in 1980 after a herculean global vaccination campaign that took decades to complete. Polio persists (albeit in small numbers) despite the availability of a highly effective vaccine since the 1950s. Ditto measles. Learn more »

Blog | Peace and Health Go Hand in Hand. We Must Pursue Both.

ByDr. Kashef Ijaz, vice president, health programs, and Barbara J. Smith, vice president, peace programs

Back in the turbulent 1960s, there was a popular poster — today it would be a meme on social media — that said, "War is not healthy for children and other living things." Learn more »

Blog | Nigeria Public Health Training Initiative Turns Reins Over to Sokoto State

The Nigeria Public Health Training Initiative recently transitioned from a Center-assisted project to state-level ownership in each of the six implementing states, including Akwa Ibom, Gombe, Imo, Ogun, Plateau, and Sokoto. Alhaji Abubakar Tambuwal, provost of the College of Nursing Science, Sokoto shares some insights about the innovative project and its impact on Nigeria’s capacity to train healthcare workers. Learn more »

Guinea Worm Cases Halved in 2020

’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program reported just 27 human cases in six African countries in 2020, a dramatic 50% reduction from 2019. Guinea worm infections in animals also were down 20% from the previous year. Learn more »

Blog | Journalism Fellow Invites Viewers Along on Family’s Alzheimer’s Journey

By Christie Ethridge Diez, 2020-2021 Rosalynn Mental Health Journalism Fellow

Christie Ethridge Diez is a reporter and anchor for Atlanta TV station at 11alive (WXIA) and a 2020-2021 Rosalynn Mental Health Journalism Fellow. In late March 2021, she shared her story of loss, grief, and strength on ’s Instagram account after her father’s Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis. Her moving posts, minimally edited, are reproduced here. All photos are courtesy of Christie Ethridge Diez. Learn more »

CEO Takes Center’s Reins Amid Pandemic, Turmoil

When new CEO Paige Alexander first saw the cafeteria in ’s Atlanta office, paper shamrocks and pots of gold adorned the walls to mark St. Patrick’s Day. Only it wasn’t March. It was June 2020. Learn more »

Blog | Partner Countries Take Ownership of Their Success

By Dr. Kashef Ijaz,vice president, health programs

Following on my commentary last month regarding health care capacity building at the community level, it’s fitting now to acknowledge our government partners’ eagerness and ability to exercise ownership of programs taking place within their borders. Learn more »

Blog | Trachoma Staffers Make Exam Scopes at Home

By Vanessa Scholtens, program associate, Trachoma Control Program

How do we know if a person has trachoma, a bacterial eye disease? A trained worker must examine a person’s inner eyelid and look for the signs. Learn more »

Blog | Health Programs’ Benefits Remain Long After We’re Gone

By Dr. Kashef Ijaz,vice president, health programs

’s neglected tropical disease programs treat and prevent Guinea worm disease, trachoma, river blindness, lymphatic filariasis, and schistosomiasis, with the goal to control, eliminate, and eradicate. Beyond the alleviation of the human suffering caused by these illnesses, this work brings ancillary benefits to communities, health systems, and infrastructure that may be just as important. Learn more »

Blog | Now Is Not the Time to Quit Fighting Neglected Tropical Diseases

By Paige Alexander, chief executive officer, and Kashef Ijaz, vice president, health programs

The world’s most vulnerable people work hard every day to overcome poverty and disease. They aren’t interested in handouts, but with a hand up they can get the resources they need to surmount obstacles to prosperity and peace. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Coronavirus Can’t Compete With ’s Commitment

By Paige Alexander, chief executive officer

When new CEO Paige Alexander first saw the cafeteria in ’s Atlanta office, paper shamrocks and pots of gold adorned the walls to mark St. Patrick’s Day. Only it wasn’t March. It was June 2020. Learn more »

Drug Treatments Resume With Safety Measures

Mass drug administration, in which entire communities receive drug treatment to halt disease transmission, was interrupted or delayed, but intense work went on behind the scenes to develop sets of COVID-safe procedures. Learn more »

Blog | Pandemic Proves Global Mental Health Can’t Be Ignored

By Dr. Kashef Ijaz,vice president, health programs

Global mental health has been called the “silent,” “parallel,” or “next” pandemic. Learn more »

Blog | Improving Access to Mental Health Care in Georgia: How Georgians Can Get Involved

By Helen Robinson, associate director, public policy

Many Georgians face barriers to accessing mental health care. While this is not a new problem, believes it is urgent that state leaders address the issue during the current public health crisis. Learn more »

Ethiopian Volunteers Work on Front Lines of Health

is working closely with the Federal Ministry of Health in Ethiopia to eliminate river blindness (onchocerciasis) and lymphatic filariasis throughout that East African nation. Essential to the effort are thousands of volunteers called community-directed distributors, or CDDs, who are chosen by their own communities and do all the work of carefully administering medicine and keeping detailed records. Click through to meet a few of them. Learn more »

Blog | , a Global Health Pioneer for 35 years, Steps into Saporta Report Lineup

is honored to join The Saporta Report’s Global Health Thought Leaders rotation. For readers who may not be familiar with our work, allow us to introduce ourselves. Learn more »

Director Melds Passion for Field with Science

Growing up, Greg Noland voraciously read National Geographic magazines. From his home near Dallas, Texas, Noland became fascinated with other cultures and seeing the world. Learn more »

Eradicating Dracunculiasis: Moves Closer to Defeating Guinea Worm Disease

Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of human Guinea worm cases was cut in half to just 27* in 2020, announced Tuesday. The 27 human cases of Guinea worm disease across six African countries mark a 50% decline from the number of cases reported in 2019. Guinea worm infections in animals fell 20% in the same period, the Center reported. Learn more »

Childhood Trauma Instills Resiliency in Guinea Worm Warrior

He could have taken his advanced degrees from Boston and Fordham universities and found a comfortable, high-paying job in the United States. But Dr. Hubert Zirimwabagabo had a different goal for the early years of his career. Learn more »

At U.S.-Mexico Border, Journalists Learn Mental Self-Care

Sometimes journalists set out to find one story and end up telling a different one. When Myriam Vidal Valero and Rodrigo Perez Ortega received a joint journalism fellowship from The Center in mid-2019, their plan was to document the emotional trauma faced by migrant families separated by U.S. policy at the U.S.-Mexico border. Learn more »

With Fellowships, Journalists Provide Facts and Debunk Myths About Mental Illness

The Rosalynn Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism program was founded in 1996 by former First Lady Rosalynn to give journalists the resources they need to report accurately and in depth on mental health to help dismantle the stigma that millions of people with mental illnesses face. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Center Makes Most of New Normal

By Paige Alexander, chief executive officer,

I don’t need to tell you what a strange and challenging year 2020 has been. A pandemic has forced us to avoid close human interactions, but has been fortunate and is taking advantage of the opportunities that technology brings to keep moving forward with our mission to wage peace, fight disease, and build hope. Learn more »

Where the Road Ends, Volunteers Carry the Load

Dedicated service is common among community volunteers and health workers with whom partners, but Dorçelan Offre takes it to another level. Offre, 27, will do whatever it takes to help fight malaria in his native rural Haiti, even if it means going far beyond the end of the road. Learn more »

Ethiopian Commercial Farms Weed Out Tropical Diseases

Programs to combat neglected tropical diseases usually are aimed at people in villages at the end of the road and occasionally in big cities where all roads lead. But laborers in the fields of large commercial farms in Ethiopia’s Gambella region are often neither here nor there, leaving them vulnerable to contracting, and in some cases spreading, debilitating diseases. Learn more »

Center Fights River Blindness in Urban Setting

Most of ’s work against neglected tropical diseases takes place in rural locations that are far from health care facilities and other resources. However, these diseases can be found in some unique urban settings, too, and the Center is just as committed to combating them there to ensure elimination is achieved. Learn more »

Blog | Altering Behavior Can Mean a Change for the Better

By Kelly Callahan, M.P.H., director, Trachoma Control Program

When COVID-19 appeared, the first thing public health experts advised us all to do was to wash our hands frequently and thoroughly. This is excellent advice, and it’s what ’s Trachoma Control Program has been teaching people for 20 years. Learn more »

Terrain, Disease No Match for Sudanese Doctor

Dr. Nabil Aziz Awad Alla, 's longtime country representative in Sudan, has not lived the quiet life of a pencil-pushing administrator. He's a hands-on boss who prefers to look his people in the eye and observe situations directly. Learn more »

Blog | Expert Q&A: What’s at Stake for Mental Health Policy in Georgia?

By Helen Robinson, associate director, public policy, Mental Health Program

Under the leadership of Rosalynn , ’s Mental Health Program is joining with partner organizations to bring attention to urgent public policy issues impacting mental health in Georgia and across the United States. ’s Helen Robinson, associate director of public policy in the Mental Health Program, answers questions about how the program works to improve access to mental health care for all Georgians. Learn more »

Ethiopians Fight Guinea Worm Disease on All Fronts

From community engagement to water treatment and filtering to dog tethering, a cluster of villages in remote western Ethiopia is applying creative strategies to protect humans and animals from Guinea worm disease, and their diligence is paying off. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Staying Positive, Building Hope

By Ambassador (ret.) Mary Ann Peters, chief executive officer

At this time of great challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been deeply moved by the commitment of our Center staff to our mission to help the world’s poorest people. Indeed, our aim to wage peace, fight disease, and build hope has never been more urgent than it is today. Learn more »

Duo Overcomes Borders and Barriers to Fight Diseases Together

In 2006, the International Task Force for Disease Eradication urged that action be taken to eliminate the mosquito-borne diseases lymphatic filariasis and malaria from Hispaniola. Despite a turbulent history of economic disparity, tensions, and bloodshed, both nations eagerly agreed to binational cooperation, and launched the Hispaniola Initiative to assist them. Learn more »

Rosalynn Mental Health Fellows Help Communities Coping with COVID-19

fellows have reported on managing coronavirus anxiety, the challenges of the mental health care system at this time, tips from mental health experts on staying mentally well, how the virus is impacting people experiencing homelessness and more. Learn more »

Mental Health and COVID-19

To aid individuals and communities during this time, Mental Health Program has compiled global, national, and local resources to promote mental health and wellness. Learn more »

Blog | Uganda Community Goes from Misery to Joy

By Peace Habomugisha, Uganda country director

Steven Ocopcan is 77 years old, and he well remembers how river blindness affected his community in Uganda when he was a child. "At the time, people thought they had annoyed God and, in return, he cursed us," Ocopcan told me. "Many people sacrificed cows, goats, and hens to God, but this didn’t work. People accused one another of bewitching others. It was bad." Learn more »

Redoubling Efforts to Reach Zero

A provisional total of 53 cases of Guinea worm disease were reported in 2019, announced Wednesday. Intensified surveillance and reporting incentives in endemic areas in recent years have produced expected fluctuations in the small number of Guinea worm cases. When assumed leadership of the program in 1986, about 3.5 million human cases occurred annually in 21 countries in Africa and Asia. Learn more »

Blog | Guinea Worm Killed My Uncles

By Daniel Deng Madit Kuchlong, health agent, South Sudan’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program

Daniel Deng Madit Kuchlong, aka Daniel Deng, is a health agent with South Sudan’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program. Here is his firsthand account, lightly edited, of how Guinea worm has affected his life. Learn more »

Field Experience Provides Insight on Guinea Worm

Weiss, who was named director of ’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program a little more than a year ago, brings to the position both experience in the field and at the Center’s headquarters in Atlanta. With eight years living in Ghana and Ethiopia in many Guinea worm program roles, Weiss is uniquely positioned to understand the challenges of eradicating Guinea worm disease, an international campaign spearheaded by that has reduced cases more than 99.9% since 1986. Learn more »

Blog | Making Guinea Worm Disease Gone for Good

By Abeer Al Fouti, Executive Director of Global Initiatives, Alwaleed Philanthropies

You almost certainly have never heard of Guinea worm disease. It doesn’t generate news headlines, is not often top of mind for global health experts, and does not attract large-scale funding for eradication efforts. Yet we are close to eliminating this devastating disease, with just a final effort required to make it gone for good. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Innovation Embedded in Center's Activities

By Ambassador (ret.) Mary Ann Peters, chief executive officer

In 1982, President and Mrs. created a new kind of post-presidential institution, not a think tank, but an organization acting to alleviate suffering and advance human rights for the world’s poorest people. Ever since, innovation has been part of the Center’s DNA. Learn more »

South Sudanese Father, Son Walk 150 Miles for Sight-Saving Surgery

At a mobile surgery camp in Lotien, a village in South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria region, a man requested surgery to help his son Lochin, age 11, who was suffering from trachomatous trichiasis (TT). After walking 245 kilometers (more than 150 miles) from their home, Lochin and his father arrived just before the temporary camp was nearing its end. Learn more »

In Mali, Peace is the Path to Rout Guinea Worm

When Dr. Moussa Saye was a boy, the rainy season brought great suffering to his village in the Bankass district of central Mali. “There were thousands of cases of Guinea worm in our village and other villages nearby,” he said. “There were whole families who couldn’t go to work. We called it ‘The Disease of No Food,’ because people couldn’t work in the fields and put away food.” Learn more »

Blog | A Conversation with the s (Sept. 17, 2019) Webcast Archive

Former U.S. President Jimmy and former First Lady Rosalynn discuss how the Center wages peace and fights disease to build hope for millions around the world. They also take questions from the audience. Learn more »

Blog | Where the Need for Services Goes, We Follow

By Angelia Sanders, associate director, Trachoma Control Program and vice chair, International Coalition for Trachoma Control

Natural disasters, conflict, and other factors can force entire populations to leave their homes and seek safer living conditions elsewhere. Such people are known as internally displaced persons (or IDPs) if they move within their home country or refugees if they cross international boundaries. Refugees are protected by international laws; IDPs are not. Learn more »

Radio Messages Help Communities Fight Trachoma

A low, boxy building made of rough but neatly mortared concrete blocks stands in the city of Mirriah, located in central Niger. Out back are a three-panel solar power array, a satellite dish, and a 100-foot-tall mast antenna. Inside are two desks with whirring computers, a small room with an electronic audio control panel, and a glassed-in room equipped with a round table, chairs, and two microphones on bases fashioned out of machinery gears. Learn more »

40 Years On, Sudan Trachoma Worker Remains Committed

Abdalla Yousif recalls how heavy the rain was in Blue Nile state, Sudan. After four hours of torrential rain, the trachoma survey team he was traveling with decided it was best to spend the night in the car. The next morning, they did what they had done so often, they tested the road with their feet, pushed their car out of the mud, and continued to the next village. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Communication Cultivates Grassroots Impact

By Ambassador (ret.) Mary Ann Peters, chief executive officer

operates dozens of initiatives addressing a range of challenging peace and health issues. Some of them seek to end human rights abuses and promote sustainable peace, while others help improve the health of at-risk people in remote places. Learn more »

Blog | Q&A: Seeking Better Outcomes for Mothers and Babies

Through its Public Health Training Initiatives in Nigeria and Sudan, helps educational institutions improve the way they prepare health workers to serve the public. In Nigeria, the initiative supports one institution in each of six states. Learn more »

28 Guinea Worm Cases Reported in 2018

Just 28 human cases of Guinea worm disease were reported in 2018, down slightly from 30 cases reported in 2017. When began leading the international campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease in 1986, there were an estimated 3.5 million cases annually in 21 countries. Learn more »

Nurse Gathers Grim Facts from Families in Hopes of Saving Children’s Lives

In a small, dimly lit office in Birni N'Gaouré, a town in the Dosso region of southern Niger, are a desk, a laptop computer, a lamp, and a ceiling fan. Occupying one wall are square cubbyholes brimming with colorful binders. It looks like something one might see in a kindergarten classroom. Learn more »

Blog | Malaria Exacts a Tragic Toll

By Hunter Keys, consultant, Hispaniola Initiative

In the poor neighborhoods where malaria festers in the Dominican Republic, people describe someone who hustles through everyday life as a chiripero, a “lucky sort.” Learn more »

Young Mother Has Her Eye on the Future

Rakia Ado, 20, was at home one day in Katirge, a remote village in southern Niger, when a team of government health workers and Center staffers showed up. The workers, trained and equipped by , explained their mission and asked if they could examine Ado’s eyes and eyelids. Learn more »

Blog | WHO Director-General Expresses Support for Global Campaign to Eradicate Guinea Worm Disease

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expresses support for the global campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease and partner efforts to eliminate neglected tropical diseases. Dr. Tedros personally thanks former U.S. President Jimmy for his leadership in the fight against Guinea worm and for being a cornerstone of the campaign. Learn more »

Nigerien a Giant for His Country’s Health

If you want to get things done in Niger, it helps to know Mohamed Salissou Kané. The Center’s country representative in Niger seems to have connections everywhere. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Helping Us Move Ahead in Difficult Times

By Ambassador (ret.) Mary Ann Peters, chief executive officer

The Center’s work is never easy, even in the best of times, when the world seems eager to embrace the efforts you help make possible in seeking peace, health, and hope for people in need. Learn more »

Blog | Mental Health Gains Global Focus

By Eve Byrd, director, Center Mental Health Program

Under the leadership and guidance of former First Lady Rosalynn , Mental Health Program is joining with other organizations to bring attention and resources to mental health care, both in the United States and abroad. Program Director Eve Byrd explains. Learn more »

Meet the Unbreakable Antoinette Sainfabe

Life is hard enough in Haiti, with its profound poverty, natural disasters, and troubled political history. Add to the mix an insidious tropical disease that causes permanent disfigurement, and the result is misery that defies description. Learn more »

Jungle Paths Lead to Better Health

For the indigenous Yanomami people of the Amazon Rainforest, trekking through jungle pathways is a way of life. Such paths serve as the only way in or out of remote Yanomami communities, where the parasitic disease river blindness is transmitted by the bites of tiny black flies. Learn more »

Initiatives Aim for Improved Maternal Outcomes

A Center initiative is helping Nigeria train health workers to meet the needs of mothers and their babies, particularly in rural areas. Learn more »

Blog | After Decades of War, National and Personal Healing Begins

By Andrés Bermúdez Liévano, 2017-18 Rosalynn Mental Health Journalism Fellow

My country suffered through 50 years of violent internal conflict before and others helped the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia conclude a historic peace agreement in 2016. While the parties to the talks continue to create and shape a new political reality, people who lived through the conflict are seeking ways to deal with what they have seen and endured. Learn more »

Blog | UAE Journalist Reflects on Eye-Opening Year

By Iman Ben Chaibah, recipient of a 2017–2018 Rosalynn Mental Health Journalism Fellowship

In September, I completed my Rosalynn Fellowship in Mental Health Journalism. The fellowships were started by former First Lady Rosalynn about 20 years ago to provide journalists with resources and opportunities to accurately and holistically report on mental health in their countries and their regions. Learn more »

Hopes Soar for Disease Elimination in Haiti

As a team of health workers arrives inChan Bon,a tiny mountainside communitysouth of Port-au-Prince, Haiti,the aromas of lush plants and cooking food hang in the airwhileclouds play hide-and-seek with the Caribbean sun. A smallgroup of childrennoisily laborsto free a makeshift plastic kite whose string is tangled in a tree. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Everyday People Can Do Exceptional Things

By Ambassador (ret.) Mary Ann Peters, chief executive officer

At , we believe people can improve their own lives when they have the right skills, knowledge, and access to resources. I’d like to introduce you to a few people who are making a real difference in their communities. Learn more »

Meet Manuel Gonzales: ‘It’s Better to Prevent than to Treat’

Helping is in Dr. Manuel Gonzales’ nature. It’s not just what he does; it’s who he is. “My vocation is to help people and help my country,” said Gonzales, who became the national manager of the Dominican Republic’s successful Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Program in April 2001. Learn more »

Measure for Measure

It’s good to distribute medicine that helps people avoid a painful, potentially blinding eye disease. It’s even better when that medicine also helps keep babies and children alive. Learn more »

Blog | A Conversation with the s 2018 Webcast Archive

In case you missed “A Conversation with the s” on Sept. 11 at , an archived version of the webcast can be viewed below. Learn more »

New School of Thought Helps Liberians Blossom

In the middle of bustling W.V.S. Tubman High School in Monrovia, Liberia, you’ll find a tranquil two-room oasis: the mental health clinic. Behind its metal door, which blocks out much of the cacophony from the open-air halls, students talk to mental health clinician Leah D.T. Sorboh about problems major and minor. Some of the teens’ complaints echo those of their counterparts around the world – they talk about breakups and mean teachers and difficult tests. Learn more »

Nigerian Woman a Pillar for Community Health

Kate Orji grabs a tall measuring stick and large black plastic bag before heading across her front yard and through the gate of her family’s compound. It’s midday in this southern Nigeria community, and the air is hot and sticky. Orji knocks on her neighbor’s door and explains why she’s here, unpacking her bag to reveal two logbooks, a flipbook, two drug bottles, a spoon, and a pen. Learn more »

Passion for People Fuels Mental Health Director

Eve Byrd remembers a conversation she had with a nursing student in Liberia several years ago. A faculty member for a Center program to credential nurses for mental health disorders, Byrd and her student nurse had just finished seeing a patient and were discussing the case. Learn more »

Blog | Fellows Get Social, Build Engaged Communities

To extend the reach of their stories and maintain relevance in a world of spinning news cycles, journalists today often have mandates to create social media accounts and share a weekly quota of posts on them. But for Jaclyn Cosgrove, a 2015-16 recipient of the Rosalynn Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism, social media means more than just posting her story. Learn more »

Laboratory Magnifies Ethiopia’s River Blindness Work

Ethiopia is serious about eliminating river blindness and has the laboratory to prove it. The laboratory, in Addis Ababa, opened in October 2015 as the Ethiopia Ministry of Health shifted from merely seeking to control the disease, technically called onchocerciasis, to trying to eliminate it entirely. Learn more »

Blog | Groundbreaking Study Could Revolutionize Public Health

A landmark study in which is participating could radically change the public health model in the developing world, experts say. Learn more »

Blog | Malaria Meets Its Match in Music

Malaria, a potentially deadly disease, with its fevers, aches, and extreme fatigue, definitely is not cool. But a music video featuring a great dance beat and a team of top Haitian performers? Now that’s cool! Learn more »

Testing Shows No Sign of Lymphatic Filariasis

Herded outdoors by their teachers, bright-eyed children chatter, their blue-and-white school uniforms gleaming in a sharp but wiggly queue. Their excitement ebbs just a bit when they reach the front of the line and get a finger pricked by an adult wearing surgical gloves. Learn more »

Sudanese Female Ophthalmic Surgeons Focused on Saving Sight

Even in the shade it was 105 degrees Fahrenheit. It can be challenging to focus in that kind of heat, but Dr. Saisabil Omer and Dr. Mayasa Mustafa were committed to providing sight-saving surgery to the men and women who came to the trachoma clinic in Al Fashaga, Gedarif state, Sudan. Learn more »

Center Slideshow | Faces of River Blindness: Kisanchi Village

Meet some elders of Kisanchi village in central Nigeria. They are blind or have low vision due to river blindness, a parasitic infection that can cause intense itching, skin discoloration, rashes, and eye disease that often leads to permanent blindness. Learn more »

Blog | Center Podcast: Jimmy Gets Candid About China

In Feburary 2018, President got candid about China in a guest lecture at Emory University. President discussed factors that led to his decision to normalize U.S. relations with China in 1979. He also talks about a dinner conversation with President Deng Xiaoping that likely led to a surge of Christianity in China, now one of the world's leading producers of Bibles. Learn more »

In 2018, is marking 20 years of impact against trachoma, the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness.

Blog | Partnership Has Had Trachoma on the Run for 20 Years

By Kelly Callahan, director, Trachoma Control Program

Hard work for a good cause can be its own reward. It’s even better when you have results to show for it. In 2018 is marking 20 years of impact against trachoma, the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness. Learn more »

Blog | Center Word Search Challenge!

Play our puzzle! Find peace, health, and hope words in ’s Word Search below. Learn more »

Center Slideshow | Neighbors Help Neighbors Combat River Blindness

At the heart of the River Blindness Elimination Program in Nigeria are thousands of community volunteers who receive training and equipment to serve as community-directed distributors. They deliver accurate health information to their neighbors, administer the medications that combat the disease, and keep thorough records for Ministry of Health and Center researchers to track progress. Get to know some of these volunteers here. Learn more »

Journalist Examines Refugees’ Trauma

Healing from trauma sometimes goes beyond individual therapy, journalist Emily Underwood reports. Underwood is helping readers understand that when an entire community experiences trauma, a kind of communal healing needs to take place as well. Learn more »

Blog | Center Staffer Lays His Life on the Line

By Adamu Sallau, director, Center health programs in Nigeria’s Imo and Abia states

Scientific or logistical challenges aren’t the only issues Center personnel have to deal with while tracking down, treating, and preventing neglected tropical diseases in remote places. Cultural issues often play a role as well, and we have to handle them respectfully and sensitively. Learn more »

Schistosomiasis Teaches Lessons the Hard Way

Ten-year-old Gideon Abraham and his brother Odenaka, 12, and sister Blessing, 7, had come to live with their grandmother in Amagunze, Enugu state, Nigeria, in the middle of the school year. They are bright children, and getting in sync with their new school’s lessons was the easy part. Gideon wants to fly airplanes when he grows up — and perhaps become president of Nigeria. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Center Provides Pounds of Prevention

By Ambassador (ret.) Mary Ann Peters, chief executive officer

We all know Benjamin Franklin’s proverb “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It makes sense to try to keep a bad thing from happening rather than to try to fix the mess that results if you let the bad thing happen. This simple but profound principle is at work in everything we do at . Learn more »

Blog | A Unique Collaboration

and Emory University celebrate an amazing 35-year partnership in 2017, a rare and productive union between a nongovernmental organization and a leading institution of higher education. Together, our reach has improved the lives of millions of the world's poorest people through disease prevention, conflict resolution, and the strengthening of human rights and democracy. Learn more »

Trust Greases Wheels in Race against Lymphatic Filariasis

Mirlande Joseph walks the blistering hot, dusty back alleys of Port-au-Prince, greeting people as if she were a politician running for re-election. “How are you? How is your family? Anyone sick? Did everyone take the medicine when we came by before?” Learn more »

Tiny Tablet Makes Huge Difference in this Woman’s Life

Cordelia Anude wears a stylish metal cross pendant, a symbol of the faith that sustains her. However, it wasn’t so long ago that she felt distanced from God and from her fellow believers. An advancing case of river blindness had impaired her vision, making it impossible to walk to church on Sunday or study her Bible at home. Learn more »

Blog | Community’s Trust and Commitment Ensure Success

By Dr. Dean G. Sienko, vice president, health programs

At , we never want anyone to be dependent on us. All of our programs are designed to solve problems, and to help our partners build their own capability, resiliency, and self-reliance. We believe in meaningful partnerships, not only with donors and governments but also—and most importantly—with the communities where we work. Learn more »

#CommittedtoChange Mosaic

President and Mrs. thank the many people who showed their support to advance 's campaign in the MacArthur Foundation's 100&Change competition for a $100 million grant to fund a single proposal that promises to solve a critical problem of our time. The Center proposes a bold plan to eliminate river blindness disease in Nigeria, creating a model for the rest of Africa and the world. Learn more »

Meet Okechukwu Obodo

Okechukwu Obodo is a widower who is well into his 70s. He lives in a one-room dwelling that is so orderly he can immediately tell when anything is out of place, and he’s good at building a fire for cooking — not bad for someone who’s been blind for 15 years. Learn more »

Blog | 100&Change: Catching Flies in Nigeria

Juliana Onwumere is a neglected tropical disease coordinator in Imo state ministry of health. As and partners fight to eliminate river blindness disease in Nigeria, one of Onwumere’s tasks is to collect black flies to be tested for evidence of the disease. Learn more »

Blog | 100&Change: Nigeria's Dr. Adewole Aims to Put River Blindness in ’Dust Bin of History’

Millions will be spared future suffering thanks to collaborative efforts of and Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Health to address widespread neglected diseases such river blindness. Hear from Nigeria's Minister of Health, Dr. Isaac Adewole, on the importance of this partnership. Learn more »

Blog | 100&Change: Takes Aim at a Big Fish

By Dr. Frank Richards, director, River Blindness Elimination Program

There’s a famous line in the movie “Jaws” – after the stunned sheriff sees the monster shark for the first time, he says to the shark hunter: “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” Learn more »

Blog | Center Conveys Note of Pride in South Africa Program

By Rebecca Palpant Shimkets, associate director, Center Mental Health Program

Seeing South Africa’s mental health journalism program blossom fills me, along with Rosalynn and everyone here at ’s Mental Health Program, with the kind of pride one feels when a family member receives a university degree. We are thrilled to have helped the program take its first steps. Learn more »

Blog | 100&Change: Dr. Frank Richards Discusses Unique Strategy

How do dirty clothes hanging in a tree help eliminate river blindness in Nigeria? Dr. Frank Richards, who directs ’s programs on river blindness, lymphatic filariasis, and schistosomiasis, explains. Learn more »

Center’s Nigeria Director Sees Challenges and Crushes Them

In many cultures, a person’s name carries significant meaning and may even be thought to describe one’s destiny. In the Southeastern region of his native Nigeria, Dr. Emmanuel Miri’s name means "water" and "life," and few names could be more appropriate for the man who directs 's health programs in that country. Learn more »

Under the Microscope: Sudan’s High-Tech Onchocerciasis Lab

It’s a sweltering morning in Khartoum, Sudan. The temperature inside the sage-green corridors of the National Health Laboratory building is only slightly below that in the dusty parking lot outside, and the elevator is out of service. Learn more »

Blog | 100&Change: Health Education Matters

Dr. Frank Richards, who directs ’s programs on river blindness, lymphatic filariasis, and schistosomiasis, explains why health education matters in the fight to eliminate diseases. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Small Actions Yield Big Successes

By Ambassador (ret.) Mary Ann Peters, chief executive officer, .

We think big at . Big ideas, big plans, big goals. Learn more »

Blog | 100&Change: Community Volunteers Key to River Blindness Strategy

By Dr. Emmanuel Miri, Center country representative, Nigeria

Gabriel Ani is a farmer and schoolteacher in the Ndiulo Enugu-Nato village in Enugu State, Nigeria, who loves his community and is loved back. Gabriel is a community volunteer drug distributor — the hands, feet, and heart of our River Blindness Elimination Program. For nine years, he has served more than 1,000 people in 129 households, carefully measuring each person to determine the proper dosage of medicine and recording it in a ledger. Learn more »

100&Change: Ask Me Anything!

Join us Tuesday, June 13, at 11 a.m. EDT for a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" chat, co-hosted by and the MacArthur Foundation. Dr. Frank Richards, who directs ’s programs on river blindness, lymphatic filariasis, and schistosomiasis, will answer your questions. Learn more »

Blog | 100&Change: Community Volunteer Joel Kasuwa Gives Back

Watch how Nigerian Joel Kasuwa, a passionate and committed volunteer, is working with to help us eliminate river blindness in Nigeria. Learn more »

IN the SPOTLIGHT: Frank Richards is a Man on a Mission

From Guatemala to Nigeria and beyond, Dr. Frank O. Richards Jr. has dedicated most of his adult life to freeing people from the miseries of river blindness. He has been director of ’s River Blindness Elimination program since its inception in 1996. Learn more »

Blog | 100&Change: A Vision for All of Africa

By Ambassador (ret.) Mary Ann Peters, chief executive officer,

Leveraging the experience of our pioneering work to eradicate Guinea worm disease, made the audacious decision to pursue elimination of river blindness (onchocerciasis) everywhere we work on it in Africa and Latin America. Learn more »

Blog | Watch President Jimmy ’s Remarks this Week to the 2017 WHO’s Global Partners Meeting in Geneva on Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs)

Watch the video below to hear former U.S. President Jimmy ’s remarksat the 2017World Health Organization’s Global Partners Meeting in Geneva on the worldwide effort to reduce the burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Learn more »

Blog | 100&Change: Nigeria's Minister of Health and 's CEO Discuss River Blindness Elimination

Why is it critical to eliminate river blindness in Nigeria? Our CEO Amb. Mary Ann Peters and Nigerian Minister of Health Dr. Isaac Adewole explain the need and great potential in this brief video. Learn more »

With two states in Nigeria on the brink of wiping out river blindness, the Center is stepping up efforts.

Committed to His Community: Gabriel Ani, the Best CDD in Nigeria's Enugu State

Gabriel Ani, a 40ish farmer and schoolteacher, is -trained community drug distributor in Ndiulo Village, Aninri Local Government Area, Enugu State, southeastern Nigeria. Learn more »

Blog | Ethiopia Trachoma Control Program Far Exceeds 2016 Surgical Goal

By Kelly Callahan, M.P.H., director, Center Trachoma Control Program

One of the horrible hallmarks of advanced trachoma is a painful inward turning of the eyelids. This condition, called trachomatous trichiasis, causes the sufferer’s eyelashes to scrape the surface of the eye, often leading to blindness. Among other interventions, trains and equips local health-care workers to perform a simple outpatient surgical procedure that reverses the condition. Learn more »

Blog | Clinicians Attend to Young Minds in Liberia

Liberia’s 2014-2015 Ebola crisis, following a 14-year civil war, left devastated families in its wake. Thousands of children and adolescents were orphaned, confined in isolation units, or stranded at home watching loved ones suffer and die, triggering a special set of post-traumatic mental health challenges. Learn more »

Blog | 100&Change: MacArthur’s Cecilia Conrad Discusses 's Proposal

Cecilia Conrad, managing director of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, discusses ’s 100&Changeproposal, which aims to eliminate river blindness in Nigeria. Learn more »

Blog | We Accomplish Much by Working Together

By Jimmy , co-founder,

After leaving the White House, Rosalynn and I searched our hearts for ways to use our unique position to help those less fortunate around the world. We knew that two issues were of paramount importance: advancing peace and preventing human suffering. Learn more »

Blog | New VP Gets Close-up Look at Work in the Field

By Dean G. Sienko, M.D., M.S., vice president, Center Health Programs

I’m the new guy around here. Although I’ve visited and worked in many places during my medical career – including multiple overseas deployments with the U.S. Army – my first trip abroad with was a new highlight. Learn more »

Blog | Watch Guinea Worm Disease Press Conference with President and Dr. Hopkins | Webcast Archive

In case you missed the Center’s Facebook Live coverage of U.S. President Jimmy and Dr. Donald Hopkins’ press conference on Jan. 11, 2017, an archived webcast of this event can be viewed below. Learn more »

Blog | Watch President Behind the Scenes of 'Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease' Exhibition

In this exclusive interview, former U.S. President Jimmy ventures behind-the-scenes of “Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease,” an exhibition created in collaboration with the American Museum of Natural History, open at the Jimmy Presidential Library and Museum throughOct. 9. Learn more »

Fellowship Takes Reporting to a New Level

Newspaper reporter Jaclyn Cosgrove wanted to dig deeper into serious mental health issues, but the tools at hand weren’t adequate for the job. That changed dramatically when she received a Rosalynn Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism. Learn more »

Wiping Out Guinea Worm Disease

Using data-driven measurements and monitoring — and working closely with federal ministries of health and affected communities — -led Guinea worm eradication campaign has driven the global incidence of Guinea worm disease down more than 99.99 percent since 1986. Learn more »

Trachoma Sufferer Goes from Fear to Clear

Tessougue Yietere lives in a village called Logo in Mali's Mopti region, where the Sahara desert gives way to the Central African rainforest. For many years Yietere had suffered from trachoma, a tropical eye infection that can lead to blindness. Learn more »

Blog | Nigeria Teen Receives Ceremonial Dose of Praziquantel

Thirteen-year-old Jude Musa looked serious, even stoic, as a volunteer from his village gauged his height with a measuring stick. Community drug distributor Yusuf Maikeffi determined the proper dose of praziquantel and handed the tablets to the boy, who popped them into his mouth and chased them with fresh water from a plastic pouch. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Center Hits 500 Million Milestone

By Ambassador (ret.) Mary Ann Peters, chief executive officer

As I write this, is closing in on the distribution of its 500 millionth dose of drugs to combat neglected tropical diseases. That’s half a billion doses of medication given to tens of millions of people suffering or at risk for river blindness, trachoma, lymphatic filariasis, and schistosomiasis. Big institutional milestones are the result of small individual efforts. Learn more »

Blog | Hunting Parasites in the Dark

By Hunter Keys, consultant, Hispaniola Initiative

Parasites keep strange schedules. Those that cause lymphatic filariasis, for example, are mostly active at night. To detect parasites in the blood, health workers will take a nocturnal sample, sometimes as late as 2 a.m. Learn more »

Blog | Notes From the Field: Guatemala Eliminates River Blindness

By Dr. Frank Richards, director, River Blindness Elimination Program

My career has come full circle. I was working in Guatemala for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1988 on the parasitic worm disease called river blindness. Then, Guatemala was Latin America’s most endemic country for the disease, which is spread by bites of black flies breeding in streams. Now, the World Health Organization has verified that Guatemala has eliminated the disease. This is a monumental achievement, reflecting 28 years of effort. Learn more »

Center Celebrates 500 Millionth Dose of Hope

in 2016 surpassed 500 million doses of medication distributed to fight neglected tropical diseases. Learn more »

Trachoma Documentary Sheds Light on Blinding Disease

"Trachoma: Defeating a Blinding Curse," a documentary feature film that follows Center staff, global health partners, and former U.S. President Jimmy engaged in a comprehensive strategy to eliminate blinding trachoma in Ethiopia, aired on American Public Television stations nationwide this fall. Learn more »

Blog | A Conversation with the s Webcast Archive

In case you missed “A Conversation with the s” on Sept.13, 2016, an archived webcastof thisevent can be viewed below. Learn more »

For Mali Health Minister, Guinea Worm Campaign is Personal

Dr. Marie Madeleine Togo is the minister of health for the Republic of Mali, responsible for protecting her almost 17 million fellow citizens from all kinds of diseases and dangers. That covers a lot of people and myriad maladies, but her work to eliminate Guinea worm disease goes beyond a professional interest in public health. Learn more »

Center Slideshow: Kinship Powerful in River Blindness Fight

When it comes to eliminating disease, sometimes it’s not only what you know, it’s also who you know. River blindness is so pervasive in Africa that many global experts have believed it could only be controlled, not eliminated. But Uganda intends to rid itself of the parasite that causes the disease, and it’s using one of its greatest resources to do it: women. Learn more »

Blog | Center Unveils New Website

Welcome to ’s newwebsite which embraces new tools, new technology, and new servers. The result? A new and improved website with an updated look. Learn more »

Cross-border Cooperation a Prescription for Disease Control

Parasites and bacteria have no respect for international borders. Many international frontiers are marked by rivers and lakes; but the water fleas that host Guinea worm larvae, the mosquitoes that transmit lymphatic filariasis and malaria, and the flies that spread river blindness and trachoma don't care which side they're on. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Local People Know Best

By Ambassador (ret.) Mary Ann Peters, chief executive officer,

operates under the firm conviction thatpeople are capable of solving their own challenges, and ourrole is to provide them the tools and training to do it. Learn more »

Blog | Words Matter: Talking About Mental Health Webcast Archive

One simple way we can help people dealing with mental illness is by choosing our words with care. How we speak and write about mental illness can help either reinforce or break down stereotypes. has long worked to reduce stigma by providing fellowships to journalists covering mental health. Learn more »

Health Stories: Real Lives, Real Change

Center Health stories. Learn more »

Journalists Gain Insight into Underreported Health Problem: Mental Illnesses

Last fall, 18 journalists met at to discuss an underreported health problem: mental illnesses. The meeting was part of the Rosalynn Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism, which aim to enhance public understanding of mental health issues and reduce stigma and discrimination against people with mental illnesses through balanced and accurate reporting. Three fellows share their experience. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Changing the World Through Partnership

By Ambassador (ret.) Mary Ann Peters, chief executive officer

During my 18 months at , I’ve been struck repeatedly not only by the frequency of our successes, but also by the chance to appreciate them on two vastly differ­ent scales. Learn more »

IN the SPOTLIGHT: Former Ambassador Brings Global Perspective to CEO Post

Posted by the U.S. State Department to Moscow during the Mikhail Gorbachev era, Mary Ann Peters had an up-close view of the Soviet system. "The isolation and repression of the people were palpable," said Peters, a former U.S. ambassador and now chief executive officer of . "We in the embassy knew that talking to people on the streets would get them in real trouble, so we refrained for their sakes." Learn more »

Center Slideshow | Erasing Disease

By spearheading eradication and elimination programs, works to wipe out preventable diseases in ways that help people acquire the tools, knowledge, and resources they need to transform their own lives. Learn about five Center health programs working to make preventable diseases a distant memory. Learn more »

Wiping Out Guinea Worm

Using data-driven measurements and monitoring — and working closely with federal ministries of health and affected communities — -led Guinea worm eradication campaign has driven the global incidence of Guinea worm disease down to only 22 cases reported in 4 endemic countries in 2015, a reduction of more than 99.99 percent since 1986. Learn more »

See where cases of Guinea worm were reported in 2016 and what the Center is doing to wipe them out.

Blog | From the CEO: Center Poised for Future Impact

By Ambassador (ret.) Mary Ann Peters, chief executive officer,

Center founders Jimmy and Rosalynn have been an inspiration for our work for more than three decades. With President ’s recent announcement that he is in treatment for melanoma, many of our friends have asked what the plans are for Center programs without the s. Learn more »

Blog | ‘MIND/GAME’ Documentary Details Star Athlete's Struggle with Mental Illness

Success in sports is said to be 90 percent mental. Even for a physically gifted athlete like Chamique Holdsclaw, that number may be low. Learn more »

Meet Christine Akello: A Civil War Survivor Fighting for Sight

Christine Akello thought she was safe. Having survived about three decades of civil war and displacement in Uganda, she thought she had seen the worst. Learn more »

Blog | Malaria Fight in Hispaniola Requires Tailored Approach

By Dr. Gregory Noland, epidemiologist

In honor of Malaria Day in the Americas, we asked Center expert and epidemiologist Dr. Gregory Noland to explain how fighting the disease in Hispaniola differs from strategies employed in Africa. Learn more »

Blog | ‘Buried Above Ground’ Sparks Dialogue, Empowers Audiences

By Ben Selkow, 2010-11 Rosalynn Mental Health Journalism Fellow and documentary filmmaker

In summarizing his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experience, war veteran and former U.S. Army Captain Luis CarlosMontalvánsays, “A disproportionate amount oftime is spent thinking about the past than your average person. Learn more »

Blog | Mental Health in Liberia: Stand Up and Act!

By Matthew Nyanplu, journalist from Monrovia, Liberia

In the last few years, there has been an awakening in the consciousness of Liberian communities that people living with mental illness are a valuable part of society and represent an important resource for social transformation and community cohesion. Learn more »

Blog | A Conversation with the s 2015 Webcast Archive

In case you missed “A Conversation with the s” on Sept. 15 at , an archived version of the webcast can be viewed below. Learn more »

Blog | Five Important Facts About Guinea Worm

By Donald Hopkins, M.D., is special advisor, Guinea Worm Eradication Program,

Donald Hopkins, M.D., is special advisor tothe Guinea Worm Eradication Program at and has been leading the effortto eradicate this neglected disease for over 25 years. Listen below as he tellsNPR’s Robin Young about the Center’s efforts to rid the world of this ancient and painful affliction. Learn more »

In the Spotlight: Kelly Callahan, Director of Trachoma Control Program

Kelly Callahan was 8 years old when she unwittingly charted her life's course. "I was sitting under the dining table with my neighbor's dog, listening to my mother's conversation about Liberia," Callahan said. "I thought, 'Yeah — I'm going to go there.' And from then on, I always knew I would go to Africa. I just didn't know why or for what." Learn more »

Saving Sight, One Person at a Time

Peter Onuchukwu is a subsistence farmer who has lived all his life in the farm community of Ibu in Okigwe local government area of Nigeria. He is only 65 years old, but ever since 2006, he has been unable to see the lush green leaves on his farm or the yields hanging from his Orange tree just a few feet from his doorsteps in Imo state, southeastern Nigeria. Learn more »

Blog | Integrated Care Key to Better Outcomes

By Dr. John Bartlett, senior project adviser, Mental Health Program

In 1993, my 92-year-old mother suffered a severe heart attack. After two months in the hospital, she returned home a changed woman. On the day of her heart attack, she had been dancingaround in her famous red pantsuit with her grandchildren, but back at home following her hospital stay, she would sit on the sofa, motionless, not talking very much, and eating less. Learn more »

Meet Christopher Olanya: Winning the War on River Blindness

Christopher Olanya, now in his 60s, has survived the brutalities of war, the trauma of displacement, and the ravages of disease in his native Uganda. He has become an unlikely symbol of hope in the mission to eliminate onchocerciasis, a parasitic infection commonly known and feared as river blindness. Learn more »

Reaching Zero is Program's Goal

In 1999, Guinea worm disease took Nigerian farmer Abdullahi Rabiu to the edge. With a reported 84 worms exiting his body through skin blisters, Rabiu could do little more than hope to survive. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Center Fueled by Passionate, Brave Staff in Field

By Ambassador (ret.) Mary Ann Peters, chief executive officer,

Passion and courage abound at . These two valuable resources compel and sustain expatriate staff and hundreds of in-country employees and volunteers who work to wage peace, fight disease, and build hope. Learn more »

Blog | Scaling Up: Center-Supported Treatments Reach Record Numbers

In 2014, Center health programs assisted in the distribution of more drug treatments for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) than in any previous year, demonstrating the Center’s commitment to alleviating suffering and improving the lives of those who live in the world’s poorest and most isolated communities. Learn more »

Blog | Breaking the Cycle of Malaria and Lymphatic Filariasis: Q&A with Dr. Stephen Blount

began its work in Haiti and the Dominican Republic after a 2006 recommendation by the Center-sponsored International Task Force for Disease Eradication declared it is “technically feasible, medically desirable, and economically beneficial” to eliminate both malaria and lymphatic filariasis from the shared island of Hispaniola. Learn more »

Center Mobilizes for Liberia's Ebola Fight

As the Ebola epidemic escalated in Liberia last fall, the nation's ministries and international public health agencies asked to help mobilize communities to identify cases of the disease and prevent its spread. Learn more »

Blog | Healing Liberia: A Mental Health Crisis

By Katherine Kam, 2012-2013 recipient of a Rosalynn Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism

Civil wars, a country in ruins, a traumatized population of four million people, and only one psychiatrist for the entire West African country of Liberia. When the country’s Ministry of Health invited to help build mental health services in the conflict’s aftermath, questions abounded. Learn more »

Colombia Alters Landscape of Mental Health Journalism

The successful expansion of Rosalynn Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism in Colombia has led to increased reporting on topics of depression, PTSD, anxiety, and post-conflict trauma. Watch the video below to learn more about how journalism fellows in Colombia are breaking down barriers and transforming public perception of mental illness. Learn more »

Blog | Artifacts Paint Picture of Eradication Campaign

A special exhibitionexploring the challenges and benefits of eradicating disease runsJan. 13 – July 12, 2015, attheAmerican Museum of Natural History. Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, developed in collaboration with , uses stunning photography, videography, and artifacts to highlight several global efforts to fight infections.Chief among these is the campaign led by The Center that may soon eradicate Guinea worm disease. Learn more »

Blog | Progress, Trends, and Challenges in Mental Health: Q&A with Dr. Thom Bornemann

Dr. Thomas H. Bornemann, director of ’s Mental Health Program, answers questions on the importance of the 30th Annual Rosalynn Symposium on Mental Health Policy, progress made over the past three decades, and challenges that lie ahead. Learn more »

Meet Peace Habomugisha: Focused on Success in Uganda

Peace Habomugisha has an office in Kampala, Uganda, but it's usually empty. As 's representative in Uganda, Habomugisha typically can be found out in the field, keeping the river blindness program on track. She makes sure health workers are distributing medication in the right doses at the right times and health education is being delivered effectively. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Center’s Principles Put into Practice in Liberia

By Ambassador (ret.) Mary Ann Peters, chief executive officer

Long before I joined as its chief executive officer in August, I knew of its amazing work as an action-oriented nongovernmental organization improving the lives of people worldwide. It is a great honor to join this mission-driven group that pursues with such vigor and effectiveness the vision of President and Mrs. for peace and global human rights. Learn more »

Reporter Tackles Parity, Affordable Care Act for Fellowship

Seattle Times columnist Jonathan Martin began his Rosalynn Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism in September 2013 and planned to cover the Affordable Care Act. He was one of six U.S. and four international journalists selected for the annual program. Learn more »

Blog | Living with Schizophrenia

By Amy Standen, 2013-2014 recipient, Rosalynn Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism

On Oct. 10, through a partnership between and PsychCentral.com, dozens of bloggers will participate in the fourth annual blog party, publishing their thoughts about mental health in observance of World Mental Health Day. Learn more »

Meet Abdullahi Rabiu: The Man with the Most Guinea Worms

It is difficult to reconcile Abdullahi Rabiu with the world record he is believed to hold. An athletic feat or sportsman's event seems likely. But could this incredibly fit, healthy, energetic Nigerian really be the man known for having the most Guinea worms emerge from his body at one time? No one else is lining up to lay claim to his title or number: 84. Learn more »

Blog | President Discusses How Technology Helps Wage Peace, Fight Disease

Watch former U.S. President Jimmy ’s video message from the Social Good Summit in New York City on Sept. 21, 2014. Learn more »

'Countdown' App Tracks Progress Toward Guinea Worm Eradication

Thanks to an in-kind donation, has published a new mobile application, "Guinea Worm: Countdown to Zero," which allows users to track the progress of the Center's Guinea Worm Eradication Program. The free Android app, developed by Big Nerd Ranch, features news and information, ways to get involved, and photographs from the field. But most important, the app allows users to count down the remaining number of cases of Guinea worm disease left in the world. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: A Look Back and Forward

By Dr. John Hardman, chief executive officer.

In September, I will step down as president and CEO of after more than 20 tremendously fulfilling years. I have been awed, inspired, and challenged by the way founders Jimmy and Rosalynn have used their influence to make a difference in the world. Learn more »

Blog | Memories from a Weekend

By Jay Beck, coordinator, Center Weekend.

This year, we moved our annual Weekend fundraiser from February to late June where we gathered amid the majestic mountains of Vail, Colorado, for a weekend of shared laughs and adventures, culminating in an auction to benefit the Center’s work to advance peace and health worldwide. Learn more »

Al Jazeera Profiles Guinea Worm Health Heroes in 'How to Slay a Dragon'

's pioneering efforts to eradicate Guinea worm disease in South Sudan are featured in the documentary "Lifelines: How to Slay a Dragon," which was broadcast outside the United States on Al Jazeera English. Learn more »

Blog | Notes From the Field: In Ethiopia, We Handle Trachoma Directly

By Mulat Zerihun Lemu, regional manager, Center trachoma and malaria control projects in the Amhara region of Ethiopia.

I learned how great a need there was for eye services in my community during the 10 years I spent working for the Ethiopian government as an ophthalmic expert. Ethiopia has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world, and trachoma is a major cause of this disability in my country. Learn more »

Center Slideshow: Meet Antonella Awanja Lomong'o: On the Front Lines Against Guinea Worm

As a young Kenyan nurse, posted over ten years ago to a remote mission hospital in war-torn southern Sudan, Antonella Lomong'o was horrified by her first encounter with Guinea worm disease. "I saw this woman come crawling across the floor, crying out in pain," Lomong'o remembered. "She had several worms hanging off her leg, and I was shocked. I'd never seen this before." Learn more »

Blog | Q&A with a Guinea Worm Worker in South Sudan

Tara Brant spent four-and-a-half years working in South Sudan on the front lines of the war on Guinea worm disease. She was a technical assistant and regional coordinator charged with ensuring each case of Guinea worm in her area was contained, educating communities on how to prevent the disease, and tracking down real and rumored outbreaks. She served in South Sudan from 2007 to 2009 and 2011 to 2013. She is currently a graduate student in Liverpool, England. Learn more »

Blog | Watch President ’s Remarks to the 67th World Health Assembly

“Today, let us renew our resolve to ensure that 2014 is the last year the world reports cases of Guinea worm disease.” – Former U.S. President Jimmy Learn more »

Blog | The Sight Behind the Statistic

By Paige Rohe, assistant director, Health Programs.

It may be tempting to hear about a neglected disease like trachoma and the 390 million people globally at risk and think of trachoma only as another sad statistic in a world where there is too much suffering and where there are not enough solutions. Yet, while trachoma is a disease of poverty, it also was once much more prolific than many people know. Until only a few decades ago, trachoma was endemic to the United States and my home state of Georgia. Learn more »

Center Slideshow: Simple Measures, Big Results

A leader in the eradication and elimination of diseases, is fighting six preventable diseases — Guinea worm, river blindness, trachoma, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis, and malaria — by using health education and simple, low-cost methods. The following slideshow illustrates some of the fundamental tools and approaches used by to help build a healthier and more peaceful world. Learn more »

Al Jazeera Profiles Ethiopia Trachoma 'Health Heroes'

Ethiopia's pioneering efforts to eliminate blinding trachoma, in partnership with , Lions Clubs International Foundation, and others, are featured in the documentary series "Lifelines: The Quest for Global Health," which will be broadcast outside the United States on Al Jazeera English. The series also will highlight the Center's Guinea Worm Eradication Program in South Sudan and the River Blindness Elimination Program in Uganda. Learn more »

Blog | Join President 's Call to Action

The suffering of women and girls can be alleviated when individuals take forceful actions, which can impact larger society, asserts President in his new book “A Call to Action.” Political and religious leaders share a special responsibility, but the fact is that all of us can act within our own spheres of influence to meet these challenges. Learn more »

Blog | Woman Sees Better Future After Eye Surgery

By Stephanie Palmer, assistant director, Trachoma Control Program

Flies buzzed in our faces as Fatahou Ibrahim, a Nigerien public health student, and I interviewed Assana*, a young woman with the eye disease trichiasis, and her mother, Habiba, sitting on colorful plastic mats beneath a tree. Assana, in her early 20s, said that trichiasis felt as though “someone stuck a needle in my eye, as if someone hit me.” Learn more »

Al Jazeera Profiles Uganda River Blindness ‘Health Heroes’

Uganda's pioneering efforts to eliminate river blindness, in partnership with , is featured in an eight-part documentary series, ''Lifelines: The Quest for Global Health,'' slated to air outside the United States on Al Jazeera English starting in April 2014. Learn more »

Nigeria Launches Coordinated Plan to Eliminate Malaria and Lymphatic Filariasis

Two horrific diseases in Nigeria — malaria and lymphatic filariasis (LF) — are being targeted for elimination through a new effort to combine prevention activities, which are detailed in a set of co-implementation guidelines issued on February 18, 2014, by the Federal Ministry of Health with support from . Learn more »

Blog | Working to Improve the Mental Health Care System in Liberia

By Benedict Dossen, administrator, Liberia Mental Health Program.

Liberia is a West African country nearly the size of Mississippi with a population of 3.8 million. But unlike many other countries, Liberia only has one practicing psychiatrist. The need for mental health services becomes even more pressing in the context of the nation’s recovery from a brutal civil war spanning from the early 1990s through 2003. Learn more »

Blog | From the CEO: Technology Aids Center’s Work

By Dr. John Hardman, chief executive officer.

is pioneering the use of today’s newest technologies in our efforts to wage peace, fight disease, and build hope in the most isolated and inaccessible places on earth. As a result, we are helping people improve their lives more efficiently and cost-effectively than ever before. Learn more »

Center Slideshow: Ugandan Lab Tests Blood, Flies Nonstop

At 's field office in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, a busy scientific laboratory is devoted to a single cause: the surveillance, and ultimate elimination, of river blindness. Learn more »

Blog | River Blindness Treatment Brings Joy of Marriage Back to Ugandan Village

The success of the Ugandan National Onchocerciasis Program in Abeju means that fewer children will be ostracized because of river blindness. Many of the benefits of Uganda’s National Onchocerciasis Elimination Program, supported by , are readily apparent: reduced blindness and itching, increased productivity, and better overall health outcomes. Learn more »

Blog | Celebrating the 100 Millionth Treatment for Blinding Trachoma

In early November, reached a trachoma milestone: supporting the distribution of more than 100 million doses of the trachoma-fighting drug Zithromax®,donated by Pfizer Inc. These treatments were provided over the last 11 years to trachoma-endemic communities in six African countries: Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Sudan, and South Sudan. Learn more »

Blog | The Affordable Care Act and You | Q&A with Dr. John Bartlett

Center expert Dr. John Bartlett, a senior project adviser to the Mental Health Program and organizer of this year’s 29th Annual Rosalynn Symposium on Mental Health Policy, answers your questions submitted via email. Learn more »

Center Slideshow: Meet Centayo Fengte: A Sight Worth a Thousand Smiles

The crowded courtyard at Chuahit Health Clinic in North Gondar, Ethiopia, is full of people — elders talking, mothers swaying side to side to soothe their infants, health workers hurrying back and forth between offices. Suddenly, a small corner of the clinic erupts in laughter. Learn more »

Pfizer, Center Celebrate Milestone in Global Campaign to Fight Trachoma

On Nov. 5, former U.S. President Jimmy joined Pfizer Inc. CEO Ian Read at Pfizer headquarters in New York City to celebrate major progress in the global campaign against the blinding disease trachoma as the Center prepares to distribute its 100 millionth dose of Zithromax ®, a Pfizer-donated antibiotic used to treat the disease. Learn more »

Blog | Art as a Bridge to Health

A community art group has been helping ’s Onchocerciasis Elimination Program for the Americas (OEPA) highlight vital health messages. Learn more »

Blog | Join Our Conversation on World Mental Health Day, Oct. 10, 2013

On World Mental Health Day, Oct. 10, we here at will pause to reflect upon the many advances in the field of mental health, including improvements in diagnosing and treating mental illnesses, as well as advancing parity for mental health in our health care system. Learn more »

Blog | Local Georgia Police Chief Travels with Center Mental Health Program in Liberia

Moultrie, Ga., Police Chief Frank N. Lang Sr. recently traveled with ’s Mental Health Program to Liberia where he helped train local law enforcement officers on how to support people experiencing a mental health crisis. Learn more »

Blog | National Council Advocacy Leadership Awards Recognize Strongest Advocates for Improved Mental Health and Addictions Care

The National Council for Behavioral Health has recognized and three other organizations with the 2013 Advocacy Leadership Awards for their contributions to the field of mental health. Learn more »

Blog | Inside Mind/Game: The Unquiet Journey of Chamique Holdsclaw

By Rick Goldsmith, 2013-2014 Rosalynn Fellow for Mental Health Journalism

I was drawn to WNBA star Chamique Holdsclaw’s story from the day I read a piece on her in the New York Times in early 2012. She’d been the best of the best at her sport, took a great fall, but emerged in apparent recovery as an advocate who was remarkably candid about her own story. Learn more »

Blog | Jimmy , New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof, and Center’s Donald Hopkins Cover Global Health Challenges in New Conversations on Google+ Series

On Sept. 10, former U.S. President Jimmy , New York Times Op-Ed Columnist Nicholas D. Kristof, and Center disease eradication expert Dr. Donald R. Hopkins held a special video chat, “Global Health: How We Can Make a Difference,” to kick off a new series calledConversations on Google+launching later this fall. Learn more »

Blog | Tune In: Center River Blindness Experts Featured in Documentary on Public Television

“Dark Forest, Black Fly,” an independent documentary feature film from award-winning producer Gary Strieker and Cielo Productions, offers an in-depth look at Uganda’s pending triumph against river blindness, a disease that has blinded sufferers in Africa for thousands of years. Learn more »

Blog | Center Exclusive: CDC Director Tom Frieden Discusses Importance of Mental Health Surveillance

By Dr. Tom Frieden, director, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

It was an honor to share the stage with former First Lady Rosalynn at the 18th annual Rosalynn Georgia Mental Health Forum in May. We celebrated the publication of the MMWR Weekly Report Supplement: “Mental Health Surveillance Among Children in the United States — 2005-2011,” the first-ever summary of federal activities tracking children’s mental disorders in the U.S. Learn more »

Blog | Center’s Dr. Hopkins Receives Honorary Doctorate from Harvard University

During its commencement ceremonies May 30, Harvard University presented Center Vice President of Health Programs Dr. Donald Hopkins with an honorary Doctor of Science degree for his leadership in disease eradication, particularly his work on the Center’s campaign to wipe out the water borne affliction Guinea worm disease. Learn more »

Blog | Center and CDC Experts Participate in Google+ Hangout to Discuss Progress to Eliminate River Blindness from Americas

Center and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) experts discuss the latest updates on the campaign to wipe out a debilitating parasitic disease, river blindness (onchocerciasis) from the Western Hemisphere via Google+ Hangout On Air. Learn more »

Blog | Hosts Launch of American Journal of Public Health’s First Theme Issue on Stigma

On April 18, 2013, former U.S. First Lady and Center Co-Founder Rosalynn and former Congressman Tony Coelho joined experts from the federal government and other mental health officials to discuss new research published in the American Journal of Public Health’s first theme issue on stigma against people with mental illness at in Atlanta. <p>The theme …</p> Learn more »

Blog | Fighting Stigma Against People with Mental Illness | Q&A with Rebecca Palpant Shimkets

Rebecca Palpant Shimkets, assistant director in ’s Mental Health Program, describes the stigma facing people with mental illnesses and how ’s activities aim to help. Learn more »

Blog | Dr. Paul Emerson and Huffington Post Live Launch Center’s Call for Action Against Trachoma

By Center Trachoma Control Program Director, Dr. Paul Emerson

This is an excerpt from Center Trachoma Control Program Director Dr. Paul Emerson’s Huffington Post Blog, “The Eye of the Beholder: Why Fighting Trachoma Matters.” Learn more »

Blog | Young Adults, Mental Health, and Social Media

By Tina Rezvani, assistant program coordinator, Rosalynn Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism

Recently, Mental Health Program hosted the panel discussion “Beyond Stigma: Bringing the Conversation about Mental Illness Forward,” on the stigma of mental illness among young adults. One topic that proved especially important was the role social media plays in young people’s lives and, consequently, their mental health. Learn more »

Nicolae Ciorogan: Finding Common Ground on Mental Health

Looking back, Nicolae Ciorogan, 38, might tell you that his life has been a journey to learn about many different kinds of people — as a child growing up in Transylvania, Romania, a documentary filmmaker in the Peruvian Andes, and as a television photojournalist in Boston. Learn more »

Blog | Dr. Adetokunbo O. Lucas Honored With 2013 Jimmy and Rosalynn Humanitarian Award

On March 5, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) awarded Dr. Adetokunbo O. Lucas the Jimmy and Rosalynn Humanitarian Award for Dr. Lucas’ “outstanding humanitarian efforts and achievements that have contributed to improving the health of humankind.” The NFID, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public and health care professionals about infectious disease, has given the award. Learn more »

Blog | Winter Weekend Attendees Gather for 21st Year to Support Peace, Health in San Diego

It was hard to feel the chill of winter in San Diego, Calif., as donors and supporters from around the world came together for ’s annual Winter Weekend fundraiser at the Hotel Del Coronado on Feb. 20-24. Now in its 21st year, the Winter Weekends have raised more than $19 million to support the Center’s work. Learn more »

Alidu Kemisa: Treatment Relieves Agony of River Blindness

Alidu Kemisa cannot seem to stop rubbing her arms and touching her head as she describes the symptoms that have plagued her for more than ten years: pain, intense itching, and roughening of her skin. Learn more »

Blog | Fighting Guinea Worm in Ghana

There is no vaccine or medicine to fight Guinea worm disease; instead, uses four main interventions to lead the international campaign against the debilitating parasite. Learn more »

Blog | Center Receives Ronald McDonald House Charities Grant for Mental Health Work in Liberia

Ronald McDonald House Charities® (RMHC®) has awarded $200,000 to support the Mental Health Program in Liberia. The funding will be used to train mental health care providers and to build supportive community environments that will benefit individuals suffering from mental illnesses and their families. Learn more »

Blog | Virtual Media Roundtable – Former U.S. President Jimmy Releases Guinea Worm Case Numbers for 2012

Former U.S. President Jimmy and Center Guinea worm experts Drs. Donald R. Hopkins and Ernesto Ruiz-Tiben will host a media roundtable via Google+ Hangout to announce the provisional Guinea worm case totals for 2012 and discuss significant progress in the international Guinea worm eradication campaign led by . Learn more »

Blog | Nigerian Village Prevents, Treats Schistosomiasis

By Lindsay Rakers, senior program associate for

Eight years ago, the urine of 12-year-old Jude Ogwu was consistently red from blood. His father, chief of Aboh, a village in southeast Nigeria, took him to the hospital for treatment but received none. The hospital lacked medicine and the resources needed to treat Ogwu, who was suffering. Learn more »

Center Slideshow: Piercing Guinea Worm's Stronghold in South Sudan

When began leading the battle against Guinea worm disease in 1986, some 3.5 million children and adults around the world suffered from it. Today the disease affects fewer than 200 people in isolated pockets of Sub-Saharan Africa. One of those places is South Sudan’s Equatoria State, where the South Sudan Guinea Worm Eradication Program — assisted by the Center and partners — is mounting an all-out effort to track down and treat every case and prevent new ones from breaking out. This story takes us to the frontlines where one of the final battles is taking place: Mogos, South Sudan. Learn more »

Blog | It’s the End of the World…for Guinea Worm Disease

It’s the horrific plague, the “fiery serpent” of the Bible, found in Egyptian mummies, and may be the inspiration of the modern symbol for medicine. Found today only in the most isolated and neglected communities of the world, Guinea worm disease once afflicted approximately 3.5 million people in Africa and Asia. Learn more »

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 '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. Learn more »

Blog | School Girl Helps Family Fight Trachoma

Stewart was a summer 2012 graduate assistant for ’s Trachoma Control Program. She traveled to Ethiopia to help survey families about the Center’s trachoma prevention activities in partnership with the local communities. Learn more »

Blog | Jimmy Responds to Questions on Peace, Health, and Hope from Around the World

Former U.S. President and Center Founder Jimmy is answering questions from the public via Facebook, Twitter, and this blog starting Oct. 19, 2012, as part of a year-long commemoration of the Center’s 30th anniversary waging peace and fighting disease worldwide. Learn more »

Blog | President Jimmy , CDC Foundation Hero

Former U.S. President Jimmy has been named the 2012 recipient of the CDC Foundation’s Hero Award. The foundation honored President for three decades of visionary leadership focused on saving lives, reducing suffering, and providing hope for millions of the world’s poorest people, as well as for his commitment to achieving a more peaceful and healthy world for us all. Learn more »

Blog | Center, Merck, and Partners Celebrate 25th Anniversary of Mectizan Donation Program

At a special ceremony at in Atlanta today, former U.S. President Jimmy , former Merck CEO Dr. Roy Vagelos, former Center Executive Director, Dr. Bill Foege, and other guests and dignitaries from around the world gathered to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Merck’s Mectizan® Donation Program. Learn more »

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 Learn more »

Blog | Cause for Concern: Shattering the Stigma of Depression and Breast Cancer

By Rebecca Palpant Shimkets, assistant director, Rosalynn Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism

The voices of millions will join together this month for breast cancer awareness in walks and runs while pink ribbons are proudly displayed on cars, pins, and airplanes. The walls of secrecy and shame that surrounded breast cancer patients and survivors until recently are toppling with increased public understanding and advances in treatments. Learn more »

Blog | Jimmy to Answer Your Questions via Social Media

For the first time, former U.S. President and Center Founder Jimmy will answer questions from the public via Facebook, Twitter, and this blog, as part of a year-long commemoration of the Center’s 30th anniversary of waging peace and fighting disease worldwide. Learn more »

Adaptation Key in Director's Fight Against Parasites

In Guatemala 25 years ago, on a coffee farm situated at the slope of a volcano, Frank O. Richards Jr., M.D., sat under a thinly thatched roof talking with an old man. Chickens foraged on the dirt floor, and a mangy dog slept in the corner. Learn more »

Blog | Center and PsychCentral.com to Host World Mental Health Day Blog Party Oct. 10

On Oct. 10, through a partnership between and PsychCentral.com, dozens of bloggers will participate in a blog party, publishing their thoughts about mental health in observance of World Mental Health Day. “Mental illness affects all of us, but there are still many myths and misconceptions about these disorders,” said former First Lady Rosalynn . Learn more »

Blog | Making Medical History: BASF Donation Helps Stop Two Neglected Diseases

and BASF continue to work together to make medical history in Africa. The latest donation of nearly 6,000 liters of the BASF larvicide ABATE® will be used to combat Guinea worm and river blindness, two neglected tropical diseases that prey on some of the world’s most disadvantaged communities. Learn more »

Changing Headlines: Mental Health Journalism Fellowships Impact Romania

Only a few years ago, Chiscop was working as a deputy chief editor for the social issues section of Iasi Daily Newspaper, a major newspaper in a cultural and academic hub in eastern Romania. Learn more »

Blog | Jimmy Sets Record for Longest Post-White House Career

Today marks an important milestone in President ’s life—he has had the longest post-White House career of any president. That’s 31 years of waging peace, fighting disease, and building hope since he left office in January 1981, which the former President says has been some of the most rewarding work of his life. Learn more »

Blog | Additional Air Dates Set for “Foul Water Fiery Serpent” Guinea Worm Documentary

An additional air date has been added across the U.S. for “Foul Water Fiery Serpent,” an independent documentary feature film that follows dedicated health workers — including Center staff and national health partners, as well as former U.S. President Jimmy — engaged in a final battle to eradicate Guinea worm disease in Africa. Learn more »

Guinea Worm Campaign Closes In on Success

With fewer than 1,100 worldwide cases of Guinea worm disease reported in 2011, and fewer than 600 cases expected during 2012, experts believe the quarter-century-long eradication campaign, led by , is at a crucial tipping point. Learn more »

at 30: A Voice for Mental Health Care

Under the leadership of former First Lady Rosalynn , 's Mental Health Program has increased awareness about mental health issues, informed public policy, and reduced stigma and discrimination against those with mental illnesses. Learn more »

Blog | Notes from the Field: Listening to Communities We Serve to Better Combat Malaria and Lymphatic Filariasis, Improve Bed Net Education

By Amy Patterson, assistant director, Malaria Control Program

At the invitation of the Nigerian government, began health program work in Nigeria in 1988. In 2010, the largest long-lasting insecticidal net distribution effort in history to fight malaria was launched in Nigeria, which bears more deaths from this disease than any other country. Learn more »

Meet Margaret Ballah: On the Frontlines of Mental Health Care in Liberia

If you ask Margaret Ballah to describe a typical day at work, she will tell you that there is no such thing. Every day Ballah rises at dawn, dons her crisp white uniform and shiny mental health clinician badge and walks several miles to Gbarzon Health Center in rural Grand Gedeh County, southeastern Liberia. Learn more »

Blog | Center Health Programs Vice President Dr. Donald R. Hopkins Receives Pumphandle Epidemiology Award

Legendary eradication expert Dr. Donald R. Hopkinsreceived the prestigious Pumphandle Award June 3 from the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE), honoring his outstanding contributions to applied epidemiology. Learn more »

Meet Dr. Nabil Aziz Mikhail: Tireless Warrior Against Guinea Worm Disease, River Blindness in Sudan

Ask about the time he nearly died from cerebral malaria during a Guinea worm surveillance trip, or his supervisory visit to a town under siege, or the nights he spent stuck in a car with no food, little water, and once with three flat tires, and Dr. Nabil Aziz Mikhail will tell you he doesn't like to sit in his office Learn more »

Blog | Sudan Announces River Blindness Success in Abu Hamad

The Republic of Sudan has won a long-fought battle against river blindness in Abu Hamad, the most isolated focus area in the world. That the government, with help from and partners, has stopped transmission of this debilitating disease in a remote community of more than 100,000 is an inspiring health success for Sudan, for Africa, and for the world. Learn more »

Blog | Center’s Mental Health Work in Liberia Highlighted by New Foundation: Focusing Philanthropy

’s work to improve access to mental health care in Liberia is highlighted as one of 14 nonprofit recipients of a new foundation, Focusing Philanthropy, which seeks to connect potential donors across the United States with charities demonstrating strong achievements and excellent fiscal management. Learn more »

U.S. President Barack Obama Names Dr. William Foege National Medal of Freedom Recipient

Blog | Worn as Pendants, Makeshift Tweezers Reflect Desperation for Relief from Blinding Trachoma

Use becomes more rare as Center, partners make major strides against the disease. The wishbone-like tweezers, folded from pieces of tin cans, look like a charm or pendant, but have a gruesome purpose. Learn more »

at 30: Leader in Disease Eradication and Elimination

he 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. Learn more »

Real Lives Real Change: 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. Learn more »

Blog | Foul Water Fiery Serpent: Guinea Worm Documentary to Air on American Public Television Stations Nationwide

“Foul Water Fiery Serpent,” a documentary feature film that follows dedicated health workers — including Center staff and national health partners, as well as former U.S. President Jimmy — engaged in a final battle to eradicate Guinea worm disease in Africa, will air on American Public Television stations nationwide beginning April. Learn more »

Blog | 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 -sponsored Onchocerciasis Elimination Program for the Americas (OEPA), the two Latin American countries have interrupted transmission of river blindness (onchocerciasis) nationwide. Learn more »

Blog | Regional Town Hall Meetings Promote Vision for Revitalizing Georgia’s Mental Health Care System

By Paige Rohe, assistant director, Center Communications Department

On a cold December afternoon in 2011, the picture of a smiling teenage girl illuminated the darkened Ivan Allen Pavilion at . 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. Learn more »

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, '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. Learn more »

Chiapas Families Help Stop River Blindness

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. Learn more »

Blog | Building Better Lives, Brick by Brick

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. Learn more »

Blog | What Are You Thankful For?

At , we are thankful for all that has been accomplished over the last year: historic elections in Sudan and Tunisia; the end of Guinea worm disease in Ghana; the first graduating class of mental health workers in Liberia; and so much more. Learn more »

Blog | Congratulates Latin American Countries for Major Strides Toward the Elimination of River Blindness

and its Onchocerciasis Elimination Program for the Americas (OEPA) are pleased to congratulate three Latin American countries on their recent progress toward eliminating river blindness (onchocerciasis). Learn more »

Center Slideshow: Maltra Success Measured in Millions

From Nov. 5-11, 20,000 health workers and volunteers will walk the countryside of western Amhara region, Ethiopia. Their quest: treat every person at risk—approximately 10 million—for trachoma control and screen as needed for malaria. In this Q&A, Paul Emerson, director of the Center's Trachoma Control Program, explains the remarkable results of these "Maltra"—malaria and trachoma—weeks, a collaborate effort between the Lions Clubs International Foundation and . Learn more »

Blog | Georgia Institute of Technology Professor "Computes for Good" with Center's Mental Health Project in Liberia

By Paige Rohe, assistant director, news and information, of ’s Office of Public Information.

A torrential rain began in Monrovia, Liberia, causing the power to flicker and the Internet to shut down, but Georgia Institute of Technology professor Dr. Ellen Zegura didn’t let the disruption stop the computer and software training session she was holding with Liberia’s first class of mental health clinicians. Learn more »

Center Slideshow: One Case at a Time: The End of Guinea Worm in Ghana

Once the second-most endemic country in the world, Ghana has stopped transmission of Guinea worm disease with no new cases of the parasitic disease reported for a full year in 2011. With an estimated 180,000 cases in 1989, Ghana’s successful grassroots elimination efforts have resulted in the promise of hopeful, productive lives for its citizens. Learn more »

Blog | Britain to Help Center Secure Funding For Worldwide Eradication of Worm Disease

In London today, former U.S. President Jimmy addressed an audience of international journalists and partners to announce that -led global campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease has entered its final stage to end this gruesome waterborne parasitic infection. Learn more »

Profile: Dr. Andrew Seidu Korkor

When Dr Andrew Seidu Korkor describes the debilitating pain caused by Guinea worm disease and how it devastates communities, he's not just making a professional observation. For this national manager of Ghana's Guinea Worm Eradication Program it's personal. Learn more »

Blog | Liberia's First Mental Health Clinicians Deploy to Fight Disease, Build Hope

By Paige Rohe, media relations coordinator for .

Torrential rains in Monrovia, Liberia, Friday morning did not deter dozens of family members and friends from arriving at the Tubman National Institute of Medical Arts hours before graduation ceremonies for the nation’s first mental health clinicians began. No one wanted to miss their loved one become part of their nation’s history and hope for a better future. Learn more »

Sadi Moussa: Public Health Worker Begins Third Decade of Improving Lives, Battling Guinea Worm and Trachoma in Mali

"I think I have something to share with another country" says Sadi Moussa, explaining why he recently relocated to Mali to help tackle public health problems after almost two decades doing similar work in his home country of Niger. Learn more »

Blog | Health Workers Overcome Logistical Challenges to Battle Guinea Worm in Southern Sudan

With approximately 95 percent of the world’s remaining Guinea worm cases, South Sudan looks to be the final battleground in the fight to wipe out this debilitating worm worldwide. The Southern Sudan Guinea Worm Eradication Program, together with , has almost 10,000 dedicated local health workers on the ground, working everywhere from the bustling capital of Juba to the most remote villages imaginable. Learn more »

Blog | Michael Biesecker: Journalism Fellow Chronicles Abuse, Fraud in North Carolina

Reporter Michael Biesecker's coverage of mental health issues began with a high-speed car chase following a robbery. In the course of Biesecker's investigation, he found that although the driver was in a psychotic state two weeks before the crime, he had been turned away from the state's psychiatric hospital. Learn more »

Blog | New Center Planned Giving Website Offers Interactive Tools, Helpful Information

Planned gifts are an excellent way to ensure that continues to wage peace, fight disease, and build hope far into the future, while also offering financial benefits to donors. The new Center planned giving website offers a wealth of information and interactive tools to help potential donors find a plan that fits their goals. Learn more »

Blog | 10 Million Bed Nets Help Worst-Affected Communities in Nigeria and Ethiopia Fight Malaria

A mother’s lullabies and soft caress are common nighttime rituals for children around the world. But throughout Africa, these soothing efforts cannot spare a child the high fevers, wracking chills, nausea, and headache of malaria - potentially fatal disease. Learn more »

Blog | Liberian Students Making History and Making a Difference in Mental Health

By Dr. Janice Cooper, Center's project lead for mental health in Liberia

Dr. Janice Cooper, a native Liberian, is ’s project lead for a new mental health initiative that, in partnership with the Liberia Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, is helping the nation build a sustainable mental health care system. This spring, Dr. Cooper began training Liberia’s first cadre of qualified, home-grown mental health clinicians. Learn more »

Meet Jozefa Ortiz Rosa: Medication Restores Sight, Brings Hope to Grandmother

When Jozefa Ortiz Rosa of Tarrales, Guatemala, started losing her vision, she worried about her future. Her husband had died years before, leaving her with six children to raise and a coffee crop to tend. Her older children had taken over the farming, but she still needed to care for her younger children and grandchildren. Learn more »

Thon Mayom: Case Containment Center Offers Hope, Relief for Boy

At bedtime, under a blue mosquito net, two boys lie on a mat and whisper secrets from the day just passed. Six-year-old Thon Mayom falls asleep quickly. He is exhausted from two sessions that day to treat a worm emerging from his knee. His 5-year-old brother, Mawut, drifts off to sleep too. His job is to look after his big brother during the difficult treatment. Learn more »

Return Visit Confirms Family's Continued Vigilance Against Trachoma

Paul Emerson entered the modest hut unannounced, knowing what he was hoping to find, but ready for anything. Emerson - director of 's Trachoma Control Program - had visited this family before. In 2005, he had accompanied President and Mrs. to Mosebo village, northwest Ethiopia, to help launch a comprehensive trachoma initiative in the region. Learn more »

Blog | Center Health Programs and Partners Celebrate Record Progress, 35.8 Million Treatments in Fight Against Neglected Tropical Diseases in 2010

’s health programs enabled a record 35.8 million treatments in 2010 to protect against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in thousands of communities in some of the most remote and forgotten places in Africa and the Americas. Learn more »

As River Blindness Declines, Health Education Intensifies

Standing in the courtyard of his school in El Xab, Guatemala, his eyes blindfolded, a boy swings a large pole toward a flyshaped piñata. Schoolmates cheer for the boy, who looks about 9 years old. His friends hope that one well-placed strike will smash the fly, releasing oodles of candy. The adults in charge hope the children leave with something more than a handful of treats. Learn more »

Blog | Nigeria, Niger Receive Center Awards for Guinea Worm Eradication

Awards for Guinea Worm Eradication were presented to Nigeria and Niger during a special ceremony held Feb. 17, 2011, in Atlanta, Ga. The two countries, which share a border, join 14 other nations that have wiped out Guinea worm disease since spearheaded the international eradication campaign in 1986. Learn more »

Guinea Worm Disease Campaign Nears Eradication Goal

Former U.S. President and Center Founder Jimmy announced today that only three endemic countries remain in the fight against Guinea worm disease, poised to be only the second disease in history—after smallpox—to be eradicated. Learn more »

Nigerian Family Fights Malaria With Center Help

The 2010 launch of a new Center-supported initiative is helping the Azi family and millions of other Nigerians receive greater access to malaria control and prevention, building the opportunity for a healthier future for the entire nation. Learn more »

Parasite-Fighting Medicine Brightens Nigeria's Future

In the blistering heat of Nasarawa North, Nigeria, the cool waters of the River Uke beckon all. Women launder clothes, people bathe, girls fetch water, and children, especially boys, splash and swim for fun. Learn more »

Blog | Guinea Worm Eradication Campaign in Southern Sudan Makes Progress, Faces Challenges

Despite challenges posed by insecurity in Southern Sudan, the region continues to see major reductions in cases of Guinea worm disease. From January to September 2010, only 1,549* cases were identified compared to 2,523 cases over the same period in 2009. Learn more »

Blog | Long-Term Commitment to Eliminate River Blindness Brightens Future for Latin America

One-third of people living in onchocerciasis-endemic communities in Latin America are no longer at risk for the debilitating disease also known as river blindness, thanks to the hard work and long-term commitment of six endemic countries—and with the support of and other partners—officials announced today during the 20th Inter-American Conference on Onchocerciasis (IACO). Learn more »

Blog | Millions Mobilize Nov. 1-7 For Trachoma Treatments and Malaria Health Education in Ethiopia

Impoverished communities in Amhara Region, Ethiopia—the world’s most trachoma-endemic area—are harnessing an innovative and far-reaching approach to treating and preventing this blinding bacterial infection. Approximately every six months, rotating between the eastern and western halves of Amhara, , in partnership with the Ethiopia Ministry of Health and Lions Clubs International Foundation, mobilizes millions of people in one week. Learn more »

Blog | Reservist Vets Need Help at Home

By Dr.Bornemann, director of ’s Mental Health Program

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have posed a unique set of psychological challenges to troops due to multiple tours of duty and a significantly greater prevalence of brain injury, among other factors. As a result, members of the military deployed in these wars have the highest rates of post-traumatic stress disorder on record. Learn more »

Making Inventions Out of Necessity to Fight River Blindness

The late afternoon sun has begun to set as Philippe Nwane, 38, carrying a long plastic tube, walks slowly through a sweet potato field near a remote village in western Cameroon. He approaches a local stream and finds what he has been hunting for all afternoon—a spot where hundreds of buzzing black flies thicken the air. Learn more »

Blog | First Treatment for Trachoma in Nigeria Goes to Young Patient

In Aloshi village in central Nigeria, four-year-old David Nuhu stands quietly as a health worker measures his height against a brightly colored pole. The health worker will use the measuring stick to carefully calculate what dose of Zithromax® (donated by Pfizer Inc.) will safely treat the little boy’s trachoma infection. Learn more »

Blog | Signing Ceremony Takes Place at : Guinea Worm Eradication and River Blindness Elimination Receive Major Boost with US $1 Million Donation from OPEC Fund

Today, during a special ceremony in Atlanta, former U.S. President and Center Founder Jimmy received on behalf of two new pledges—$500,000 toward the Guinea Worm Eradication Program and $500,000 toward the Onchocerciasis Elimination Program for the Americas (OEPA)—from the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), represented by His Excellency Director General Suleiman Jasir Al-Herbish. Learn more »

Blog | Soloist Fights Stigma of Mental Illness with Violin and Guitar

“The best way to overcome stigma is to learn that the man who sits in the next office suffers from depression or the neighbor you chat with on summer evenings is battling bipolar disorder. You know them; you’re not afraid of them…Together we can eliminate stigma and bring a better life. Learn more »

Blog | Journalism Fellows Explore Mental Health Issues, Fight Stigma

Former First Lady Rosalynn launched a journalism fellowship program in 1996 to increase accurate reporting of mental health issues as a way to fight stigma and discrimination against people with mental illnesses—some of the most serious, unrecognized, and under-reported health problems in the United States and worldwide. Learn more »

Blog | Journey to Liberia: Center Staffer Reflects on Country's Mental Health Needs, New Initiative

By Jane Bigham, assistant program coordinator for ’s Mental Health Program

Many Liberians suffer from trauma, depression, and other mental health issues following more than a decade of civil conflict. With only one psychiatrist in the entire country, and just a handful of nurses with mental health training, treating those who suffer from mental illnesses has been almost impossible. Jane Bigham, assistant program coordinator for ’s Mental Health Program, reflects on her journey and what a new Center mental health initiative will mean for the people of Liberia. Learn more »

Blog | Former U.S. President Jimmy Tours Atlanta Airport Exhibit

During a stopover at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, President and Mrs. viewed, for the first time, the exhibit “Jimmy : Georgia’s Native Son.” The s met with Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and airport officials and enlightened a growing crowd with personal memories and behind the scenes insights. Learn more »

Blog | 'Jimmy : Georgia's Native Son' Exhibit Opens at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport

The next time you are waiting for a flight at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, visit a president, and get to know “Jimmy : Georgia’s Native Son.” This large exhibit flanks both sides of the corridor between Security and Concourse T and is packed with rare photos, art, and artifacts giving viewers a snapshot of President ’s life as a peanut farmer, a romantic, a politician, a president, a humanitarian, and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Learn more »

Journalism Fellow Kelly Kennedy Uncovers the Many Faces of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

A mortuary services soldier came home angry and suicidal, having processed the dead faces and body parts of numerous service members. A well-loved first sergeant killed himself in front of his men. A platoon that had just lost several soldiers refused to go back on patrol, fearful that their rage would lead to more death. Learn more »

Nomadic Groups Pose Challenge for Fighting Guinea Worm in Southern Sudan

The lives of an estimated 70 percent of the people living in Southern Sudan are intrinsically entwined with their cattle. Learn more »

Center Slideshow: Ghana Keeps Trachoma at Bay

Ghana recently became the first sub-Saharan African nation to eliminate blinding trachoma as a public health problem, thanks to a decade-long effort of Ghana Health Services in partnership with ’s Trachoma Control Program. Trachoma has devastating effects on communities already on the brink of survival, but its most severe form — blindness — is now rarely found in Ghana due to the success of the SAFE strategy — Surgery, Antibiotics ®, Facial cleanliness, and Environmental hygiene. Trachoma thrives in a dry and dusty environment like that in Tingoli, northern Ghana, which is pictured here. Learn more »

Blog | Ethiopian Medical Student Travels Far to Perform Trichiasis Surgery

Mekuria Amare, a health officer in the North Gondar Zone of Ethiopia, is currently completing his clinical training at Gondar University to become a medical doctor. Mekuria initially received training as a health officer, providing him the opportunity to provide general health care to a rural population. Learn more »

Video Journal: Pioneering Approach Brings River Blindness to Brink of Elimination in Sudanese Community

Abu Hamad, a vast and isolated desert community 500 kilometers from the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, is on the verge of disproving a long-held belief among public health professionals that river blindness (onchocerciasis) cannot be eliminated in Africa due to poor health care delivery and the disease's prevalence. Learn more »

Guinea Worm Eradication Efforts Gain Further Momentum With Significant Case Reductions in 2009

-led drive to eradicate Guinea worm disease gained significant momentum in 2009, with an all-time low of 3,190* total cases reported -- a 31 percent decrease from 2008. Learn more »

Blog | Fighting River Blindness in Cameroon: Navigating Mud, Biting Flies, and Torrential Rains

By Kelly Callahan, assistant director of program support for ’s Health Programs

Kelly Callahan, assistant director of program support for ’s Health Programs, blogs from a river blindness-endemic village in western Cameroon, where she is assessing Center and national program efforts to combat the devastating parasitic infection. Learn more »

Village Volunteer Viviana Kolong Works to Protect Her Community from Debilitating Disease

It is early morning in Molujore village of Terekeka County in Southern Sudan, and Viviana Kolong, a 30-year-old mother of three, dresses carefully in a cool, yellow and white cotton dress and orange flip flops, adding a black bracelet and white beaded rosary to complete her outfit. As the wind picks up and the temperature starts its punishing rise, Kolong leaves her mud hut, passing by her home's empty grain stores. As usual, it will be a long day. Learn more »

Integrated Drug Treatment Saves Time, Money in Nigeria

Over the past three years, , in partnership with the Nigeria Ministry of Health, has introduced an innovative way of simultaneously treating several parasitic diseases in Nigeria. In this approach — known as triple-drug treatment — a health worker gives a community member three different medicines at one time that in combination treat river blindness, lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis, and several kinds of intestinal worms. In the interview that follows, Frank Richards Jr., M.D., who directs the Center's programs for fighting these diseases, discusses the benefits of the triple-drug approach. Learn more »

Former First Lady Rosalynn Launches Tour for "Within Our Reach: Ending the Mental Health Crisis"

"Within Our Reach: Ending the Mental Health Crisis," by Rosalynn with Susan K. Golant and Kathryn E. Cade, published by Rodale Books. Learn more »

Center Successfully Integrates Antibiotic Distribution, Health Education During Intensive Weeklong Efforts Against Blinding Trachoma, Malaria

With a population of approximately 17 million, the Amhara Region of Ethiopia is one of the most severely affected trachoma-endemic areas in the world. There are currently more than 15 million people at risk of infection and approximately 470,000 people visually impaired as a result of trichiasis, the blinding form of the disease. In addition, the region is susceptible to seasonal malaria epidemics, putting the majority of the population at risk for the potentially fatal disease. Learn more »

Meet Teshome Gebre: Lion of Disease Prevention in Ethiopia

Teshome Gebre, 's country representative for health programs in Ethiopia, likes to joke that he has been in public health service for what seems like 100 years. Yet, it's impossible to ignore the great joy Teshome has received from a lifetime dedicated to fighting disease in his native Ethiopia. Learn more »

Millions Mobilize in Amhara Region for Treatments

Impoverished communities in Amhara Region, Ethiopia—the world's most trachoma-endemic area—are harnessing an innovative and far-reaching approach to treating and preventing this blinding bacterial infection. Learn more »

Blog | Center Hosts Annual Health Program Reviews

is hosting its 2009 health program reviews March 23-31, 2010, with experts from around the world –including representatives from partner organizations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Lions Clubs International, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – gathered in Atlanta to assess program status and adopt recommendations for the coming year. Learn more »

Siblings Work Together to Prevent Malaria in La Bomba, Dominican Republic

Brother and sister Juan Tavares Rodriguez and Casilda Trejada Abreu live with their family in a pine board home in La Bomba, Dominican Republic. Learn more »

Medical Student Travels Far to Perform Trichiasis Surgery

Mekuria Amare, a health officer in the North Gondar Zone of Ethiopia, is currently completing his clinical training at Gondar University to become a medical doctor. Mekuria initially received training as a health officer, providing him the opportunity to provide general health care to a rural population. In 2007, he was trained by to provide trichiasis surgery at his health post in the remote district of Telemt. Learn more »

Blog | Winter Weekend Auction Raises $1,322,300 for Center Peace, Health Initiatives

's annual Winter Weekend auction, held Feb. 27 at Port St. Lucie, Fla., raised $1,322,300 — the second-highest amount raised in the event's history — to benefit the not-for-profit Center’s initiatives to advance peace and health worldwide. The highest bid items at the fundraiser were two original paintings by former U.S. President Jimmy , which sold for $290,000. Learn more »

Gen. Dr. Yakubu Gowon Stands as Hero in Guinea Worm Eradication

The last case of Guinea worm disease in Nigeria was suffered by Grace Otubu, 58, of Ezza Nkwubor village in Enugu state, whose worm emerged in November 2008. Twelve months later, Nigeria triumphed over the ancient, crippling affliction, also known as dracunculiasis, that had affected hundreds of thousands of Nigerians at its peak. The success of Africa's most populous nation against this debilitating waterborne parasite would not have been possible without the hard work of the endemic communities, the relentless vigilance of the national program, and the dedication of Gen. Dr. Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria's former head of state. Learn more »

Blog | Fighting Guinea Worm in Molujore Village, Southern Sudan

Former U.S. President Jimmy , Central Equatoria State Governor Clement Wani Konga, and Commissioner Clement Maring Samuel today urged intensification of efforts to wipe out Guinea worm disease, a waterborne parasitic infection, in the remote village of Molujore, Terekeka County, Southern Sudan. The village visit was followed by a press conference at the Assembly Hall in Juba, with representatives from Sudan's Ministry. Learn more »

Blog | Southern Sudan: Guinea Worm’s Final Frontier

Former U.S. President Jimmy and his wife, Rosalynn, are in Sudan—the world’s most Guinea worm-endemic country—to personally appeal for completing eradication of the crippling waterborne parasite as soon as possible and to urge peace and stability in the nation as it prepares for its first multi-party elections in 24 years in April, which ’s international election observation team will monitor. Learn more »

Meet Yalanbu Zenabu: Former Trichiasis Patient Sees Hopeful Future

Three years ago, Yalanbu Zenabu of Botingli, northern Ghana, was consumed by the daily suffering of trachoma. As a victim of trichiasis, the blinding form of trachoma, her disease had progressed to the stage where her eyelashes scratched against her eye, causing intense pain and debilitation. Learn more »

Tracking Fevers and Teaching Prevention: A Haitian Health Agent's Story

A crowd of children follow Jonel Mompremier, 27, as he travels from house to house in Ouanaminthe, Haiti. They giggle as the health worker asks the same question at every doorstep, "Does anyone at home have any fevers?" Learn more »

Battling Mosquitoes and Malaria in La Bomba, Dominican Republic

It's a Sunday afternoon in La Bomba barrio, a subdistrict of Dajabón, Dominican Republic, and the entire community can be found outside their clapboard and cement block homes to beat the stifling heat. Learn more »

Empowering Elimination of Malaria and Lymphatic Filariasis from Hispaniola: Snapshots from the Field

In September 2008, and a binational effort between the Dominican Republic and Haiti launched a historic one-year initiative to help the countries and their other partners accelerate the elimination of two devastating mosquito-borne infections—malaria and lymphatic filariasis. Learn more »

Profile From the Field: Mauricio Sauerbrey, M.T., M.Sc., Ph.D.

If passion is a key ingredient for success, then Dr. Mauricio Sauerbrey embodies the necessary "stuff" for meeting the goal of interrupted transmission of river blindness — or onchocerciasis—in the Americas by 2012. Learn more »

Guinea Worm Disease: Nigeria's Last Case

In Ezza Nkwubor village in southeastern Nigeria, 58-year-old Grace Otubo sits on a wooden bench and touches her right heel, recalling where a Guinea worm painfully emerged in November 2008. She didn't know it at the time, but her Guinea worm would be the last one from Nigeria. Learn more »

Meet Alba Lucia Morales: Health Educator Fills Critical Role in Onchocerciasis Elimination

For Alba Lucia Morales Castro, health education adviser with the Onchocerciasis Elimination Program for the Americas (OEPA)---sponsored river blindness elimination organization in Latin America--the joy of working in the field is its own reward. Learn more »

Former U.S. President Jimmy and Center Delegation Tour Hispaniola to Support Elimination of Malaria and Lymphatic Filariasis from Caribbean

Efforts to eliminate malaria and lymphatic filariasis from the Caribbean island of Hispaniola were underscored Oct. 7-8 during a visit by former U.S. President Jimmy and a Center delegation. Learn more »

Microscope a Powerful Tool in Malaria Fight

Microscopist Marino Castillo pricks the finger of five-year-old girl Silvana Mayor and draws blood onto a glass slide. The girl's shirt is bright yellow, but her face is weary. Her mother says the girl has had a fever for several days, and the mother is worried that she has malaria. Learn more »

Young Patient Exhibits Bravery Beyond His Years in Unusual Guinea Worm Case

Five-year-old Lotepi Lokusi's mother was worried. Although she knew it was common for a Guinea worm to emerge from a foot or an ankle, she had never seen one migrate to the face. Clearly visible just under his skin--from one jaw line to the other — a Guinea worm was winding its way higher each day, toward her little boy's scalp. Learn more »

Nigerien Soap Provides Income, Helps Prevent Blindness

It is nearly evening in the desert village of Adorihi in southern Niger, and 36-year-old Aisha Oumarou crouches over her cooking fire carefully mixing oil into a pot on coals. Although the mixture smells faintly of peanuts, the hot dough that Oumarou extracts from the pot and rolls between her hands is not destined to be the evening's meal, but balls of soap. Learn more »

Center Successfully Distributes Nine Million Doses of Antibiotics During Ethiopia MALTRA Weeks

With a population of approximately 17 million, the Amhara Region of Ethiopia is one of the most severely affected trachoma-endemic areas in the world. There are currently more than 15 million people at risk of infection and approximately 470,000 people visually impaired as a result of trichiasis, the blinding form of the disease. In addition, the region is susceptible to seasonal malaria epidemics, putting the majority of the population at risk for the potentially fatal disease. Learn more »

Ghanaian Reggae Artist Sings Out Against Guinea Worm Disease, Educates Concert-Goers About Prevention

It is dusk in northern Ghana and communities reverberate with the local mosque's call to prayer. The setting sun has fallen beyond the concrete buildings that flank the market square, casting everyone in deep purple shadow. Thousands of people are making their way to this rural outpost, the current epicenter of the country's decades-long battle to eradicate Guinea worm disease. Learn more »

Health Director Relishes Everyday Victories

For Craig Withers, 's director of program support, the bumblebee is the perfect symbol of success. Learn more »

Innovative Program Fills Health Care Void in Ethiopia

Ethiopia daily faces a devastating health emergency - one in six children will not see their fifth birthday, and the life expectancy is 41 years. The most common illnesses and causes of death could be easily prevented or treated if it were not for the acute lack of access to health care in the country. Learn more »

Out of Hope Springs Tulips: Jerome Lawrence

Lawrence, whose pieces favor vivid colors and often depict natural subjects like flowers and landscapes, says the tulips were inspired by a springtime visit to the Center's grounds. He believes tulips, in their many shapes and hues, represent people from around the world and the beauty that can occur when we all work together. Learn more »

Congo Women Confide Painful Reality to Fellow

In a refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, journalist Jimmie Briggs listens via translator to a young woman describe being raped by soldiers. Briggs, an unlikely confidant as both a man and an American, is so devastated by her account he cannot continue taking notes. He begins to weep and offers to end the interview. The woman, "Madeline," refuses. Learn more »

Blog | Mental Health Parity: A Q&A with Center Mental Health Program Founder, Rosalynn

In light of the recent passage of the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, Mrs. sat down to discuss what has changed since she began her advocacy work and what still can be done for people living with mental illnesses. Learn more »

Ambitious Goal to End Blindness-Inducing Disease

Conventional wisdom says trachoma — the leading cause of preventable blindness worldwide — can only be treated, not eliminated. But Teshome Gebre, 's point man for trachoma control in Ethiopia, hopes to defy that wisdom. He is convinced that trachoma's blinding and debilitating effects can be stopped before the end of the next decade, the targeted goal for global trachoma elimination. Learn more »

Uganda Attempts Nationwide Elimination of River Blindness

River blindness is such a pervasive disease in Africa that many global experts believe it can only be controlled not eliminated. But Uganda has announced plans to rid the disease, despite hefty challenges. The country's Ministry of Health officials believe that eliminating the disease will be more cost-effective than continuing control efforts indefinitely for its estimated 2 million citizens at risk. Learn more »

Blog | Combating Stigma, Building Understanding: A Q&A with Center Expert Rebecca Palpant

With help from the Rosalynn Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism, journalists on four continents are working to reduce stigma and raise awareness about mental health and mental illnesses in their communities. Learn more »

Center Slideshow: Sadia's Story

In 2007, Sadia Mesuna—a young girl from Savelugu town in Northern Ghana—spent two agonizing months in a Center Guinea worm containment center with 20 other children suffering from the disease. Today, Sadia, 7, is Guinea worm-free and has returned to school. This is her story of triumph and a new life without fear. Learn more »

Sadia Revisited: A Young Girl's Triumph Over Guinea Worm Disease

In 2007, Sadia Mesuna—a young girl from Savelugu town in Northern Ghana—spent two agonizing months in a Center Guinea worm containment center with 20 other children suffering from the disease. Today, Sadia, 7, is Guinea worm-free and has returned to school. This is her story of triumph and a new life without fear. Learn more »

Guinea Worm Cases Drop to Fewer Than 10,000

The countdown to complete elimination of Guinea worm disease is ticking closer to zero. Ethiopia, Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Togo now have joined the list of countries reporting an end to transmission of the disease. leads the international coalition fighting the disease. Learn more »

Strong Friendship Sustains Children Weakened by Disease

The characteristics of childhood friendship are similar all over the world. In the community of Nasarawa North in Nigeria in 2006, friends 13-year-old Aminu Farouk, 12-year-old Dauda Usman, and 11-year-old Salihu Abdullahi walk to school together, dive in the local reservoir on hot afternoons, and help each other with difficult homework assignments. They also share a deep secret. Each suffers from urinary schistosomiasis, a silent and destructive parasitic infection that leads to poor growth and impaired cognitive function in children. Learn more »

Pitasia Gonzales: Treatment Gives Hope for Grandchildren's Future

Pitasia Gonzáles lives in rural Mexico with her daughters, in a home surrounded by coffee fields accessible only by foot. Like many of the women in her community, Gonzáles was a strong and capable provider for her family, until river blindness (also known as onchocerciasis) stole her sight many years ago. Learn more »

Profile: Hubeida Iddirisu Free From Guinea Worm Disease, Girl Tends to Family, Chores

A little more than a year ago, 10-year-old Hubeida Iddirisu faced long days of pain as three Guinea worms began to emerge from blisters on her body. Every day for two weeks, a volunteer came to her home in Savelugu town, Ghana, to extract the worms slowly by rolling them on pieces of gauze, a little each day. As is the case with most Guinea worm disease victims, Iddirisu was unable to handle her household tasks while the worms were emerging. Her family relies on her income from selling charcoal. Learn more »

Profile: Paul Emerson Fly Expert Tackles Trachoma in Africa

Growing up in England, Dr. Paul Emerson dreamed of becoming a scientist and an educator, the kind of individual who would have both the technical knowledge and practical skills to show people how to better their lives. That dream led him first to teach in England and Africa, then to become a medical entomologist, and now to , which he joined three years ago as director of the Trachoma Control Program. "My specialty is the humble house fly and the diseases it transmits," he said. One of the worst of these is trachoma, a bacterial infection of the eyes. Learn more »

Malaria Program Celebrates Successes in Ethiopia

After launching its malaria program in 2006, moved quickly to supply a shortfall of 3 million LLINs, requested by the Ethiopian Ministry of Health to help reach Ethiopia's goal of 20 million LLINs to cover all households in malarious areas by mid-2007. Learn more »

To Guinea Worms, Ruiz-Tiben is Top Foe

Fifteen years ago, Dr. Ernesto Ruiz-Tiben, then in his early 50s, was contemplating retirement. He had served 27 years as a commissioned officer of the U.S. Public Health Service at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and was thinking about starting a new career and traveling. Learn more »

Welcomed Home, an Outcast Begins to Heal

Today, a visitor to the Mbale district of eastern Uganda might see Mustafa Mugwano happily plowing his fields in the lush farming village of Bunawazi. But two years ago, he would have been found living alone in the forests bordering the village. Mugwano survived there for more than 10 years after having been turned away by his community. Learn more »

Inspired by Health Challenges, Doctor Works Miracles in Burkina Faso

As a child growing up in the small village of Dakore in Burkina Faso, Dr. Dieudonné Sankara saw firsthand the debilitating affects of Guinea worm disease. Learn more »

Blog | Mental Illness Prevention: Interview with Thomas H. Bornemann, Ed.D., Director of Mental Health Program

In this interview, Dr. Thom Bornemann, director of Mental Health Program, discusses the importance of early screening and intervention, and the current challenges to mental health prevention efforts. Learn more »

Group Brings Hope to Nigerians Disfigured by Swollen Limbs

Swathed in a loose-fitting tunic conservatively hiding his deformed right leg, 38-year-old Hamisu Isa pulls up a white plastic chair to join a group of his fellow Nigerians under two mango trees in the city of Jos. Learn more »

In South Africa, a Journalist Finds Words for Unspeakable Tragedies

It was a recurring headline in South African newspapers: "Cop Murder-Suicide Claims Family." Dozens of sons, fathers, and husbands working in the South African Police Service had committed these crimes against their own families, but the stories of what motivated them were rarely told. Learn more »

Mental Health Fellow Breaks Down Stereotypes

Time and money to access voluminous public records are luxuries most reporters do not have to investigate negligence or malfeasance in the public sector. Learn more »

Journalism Fellowships Expand to Romania

Alex Ulmanu sometimes wonders if things could have been different. "I had a colleague in university who was a brilliant, brilliant person and who committed suicide in her very early 20s. We learned afterward that she was suffering from schizophrenia," Ulmanu said. Learn more »

Center Mental Health Program Observes World Mental Health Day

Mental illnesses affect people of all ages in all countries and societies, from the boy soldier in Sierra Leone traumatized by years of bloody civil war to the aging farmer in Oklahoma suffering from depression. These illnesses have a profound impact on the quality of life for individuals and families and stunt economic growth in societies around the world. Learn more »

I Sold My Roof: Farmer's Hope for Grandchildren Includes Futures Free from River Blindness

The rolling, lush landscape of the Ethiopian countryside surrounded the straw and mortar shelter. Inside, Ababora Abajobar, 70, sat in the thick-walled darkness. His weathered hands perched upon his walking stick, his blue socks neatly folded around his scarred shins. Learn more »

Emory Awards Honorary Doctorate to Longtime Center Mental Health Supporter

ATLANTA....Beverly Benson Long, a mental health pioneer whose efforts were instrumental in establishing the Rosalynn Endowed Chair for Mental Health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree during Emory's 162nd commencement ceremony. Learn more »

Center Consultant Norman Borlaug Receives Congressional Gold Medal for Food Research

Norman Borlaug, Nobel peace laureate and senior consultant of 's Agriculture Program, was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal here July 17 for his work on high-yield, disease-resistant varieties of wheat credited with starting the "Green revolution" and alleviating starvation in India and Pakistan in the 1960s. Learn more »

Agriculture Program Helps Ethiopia Achieve Food Surplus

In 1985, the Live Aid concert alerted the international community to the plight of hundreds of thousands of starving Ethiopians. Learn more »

New Malaria Program Blankets Areas of Ethiopia with Bed Nets

This article was originally featured in the 2007 Spring issue of Center News Ethiopian farmer Mamo Tesfaye is no stranger to disease. Four years ago, he could only sit idly outside his home as the growing season came and went. Afflicted with river blindness, he could not see well enough to work his land or provide for his children. But soon after, began distributing the drug Mectizan®, which prevents the disease and even reverses its effects, in his village of Afeta. Today, Tesfaye surveys his land from behind his two brown oxen as he plows his fields. Learn more »

Center Slideshow: Mectizan® Brings Hope to Millions

Since 1996, ’s River Blindness Program has assisted in the delivery of more than 100 million treatments of Mectizan® (donated by Merck Inc.) and conducted health education in 11 endemic countries in Latin America and Africa. The Center is leading the drive to eliminate this blinding parasitic disease where it occurs in the Americas by 2015. Learn more »

Center Slideshows: Sadia's Story

A few days in the life of a Ghanaian child shows the disabling misery caused by Guinea worm disease, which has been campaigning to eradicate for 22 years. In early 2007, there was a massive outbreak of the disease in Ghana, with Savelugu, Sadia's hometown, located in the Northern Region, at its epicenter. In response, the national program - in partnership with - set up Guinea worm case containment care centers to identify, treat, and educate the victims, most of whom are children. Here is Sadia's story: Learn more »

Reporters Find Inspiration in Mental Health Stories

In South Africa, men view depression as a sign of weakness. So when veteran journalist Marion Scher wrote a story on the topic for the South African magazine Men's Health, she was thrilled that the men she interviewed allowed her to use their real names. "That's very, very unusu­al," Scher said. "They really bared their souls to me." Learn more »

Many Forgotten Diseases, One Integrated Approach

To help combat neglected tropical diseases suffered by millions of people, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $10 million to fund two groundbreaking Center initiatives in Nigeria. Learn more »

Miss Ghana Vows to Fight Guinea Worm Disease in Her Home Country

In the community of Tampiong in northern Ghana, Miss Ghana 2005, Lamisi Mbillah, balanced on her high heel sandals, lifts a small black pipe filter above her head so that the hundreds of school children surrounding her could see it. She selects a shy little boy from the crowd to demonstrate how the filter works. The boy complies, using the pipe filter as a straw to drink from the container of water in Mbillah's hand. Learn more »

Trachoma Study in Sudan Shows SAFE Strategy Works

Children in the United States may not give grape-flavored cough syrup another thought, but in Eastern Equatoria, Sudan, children look forward to their yearly dose of an antibiotic that tastes like bananas. The medicine, azithromycin, is one part of a strategy designed to prevent blinding trachoma, a bacterial eye disease and leading cause of preventable blindness in the world. Learn more »

Laughter Is the Best Medicine: Group's Humor Aids in Guinea Worm Education

Two actors take the stage and make wild cartoonish gestures and snappy remarks. This is not the latest sitcom in Hollywood or a new Broadway production but a drama about Guinea worm disease in rural Ghana. Learn more »

Removing the Scar of Guinea Worm Disease: One Village at a Time

The muddy pond is as brown as the hillsides surrounding it. It is the peak of dry season in Ghana and Chief Tahanaa looks over the water he has been drinking since he was a child. Learn more »

Center Calls for Better Mental Health Care for All Georgians

Five-foot-six-inches tall, Angela Ford's weight has varied from 90 pounds to her current 216. She struggles between anorexia and binge eating, and suffers from postpartum stress disorder and depression. She lives in Fulton County, Ga., which has no mental health services available to her. Even if it did, she couldn't afford it on disability checks anyway. Learn more »

Education Key to Reducing Trachoma Across Africa

"My mother believed you got trachoma from crying," said Neter Nadew, a 36-year-old Ethiopian mother of four who suffers as her mother did from trachoma, a bacterial eye disease that can lead to blindness. Nadew's mother was forced to pluck out her eyelashes to prevent the onset of blindness in the later stages of the disease. Learn more »

Dr. Emmanuel Miri: 'Dr. Water' Pours New Life into Rural Nigerian Communities with Center Health Programs

His name means "water" and "life" in the Southeastern region of his native Nigeria, and perhaps no name could be more appropriate for Dr. Emmanuel Miri, resident technical adviser for 's health programs in Nigeria. Learn more »

Staffer Reflects on OEPA Successes, River Blindness Partnerships in Mexico

is the sponsoring agency for the regional coalition OEPA (Onchocerciasis Elimination Program for the Americas). The coalition works to eradicate onchocerciasis - also known as river blindness - in the Americas through semi-annual distribution of the safe and effective oral microfilaricide ivermecin (Mectizan®), donated by Merck & Co, Inc. Learn more »

Proving Kinship Counts in Global Public Health

The son of an area chief in the former Ankole Kingdom, Moses Katabarwa learned early the importance of family, community, and grassroots action, dedicating his life to improving the well-being of his fellow Ugandans. Learn more »

Trachoma Radio-Listening Club Volunteer Spreads Health Messages Across Ghana

Memunatu Alhassan lives in Botingli village in Northern Ghana. She is an active member of her village's radio-listening club and frequently appears on the shows herself. supports the production of trachoma radio shows, pays for airtime, and has provided 250 Freeplay™ radios to the radio-listening clubs. Learn more »

Center Slideshow: Schistosomiasis in Kwa'al, Nigeria

Anxiously queuing to be measured for treatment, a group of 5- to 14-year-olds listens to a health educator just off the main road that passes through their village of Kwa'al, Nigeria. Learn more »

Innovative Approach to Disease Control Multiplies Results

Imagine a nation almost half the size of the United States where large portions of the population are sick -- not with just one disease but several at once. Such is the daily reality for those living in Nigeria, a nation with one of the highest burdens of disease in Africa. Learn more »

Dr. Thom Bornemann: Director Sees Need to Integrate Mental Health Into Health Care System

Although the words "reduce stigma" do not appear in the name of any initiatives of the Mental Health Program Thom Bornemann directs, the concept is embodied in virtually everything the program does. Learn more »

Countrymen United in Fight Against Guinea Worm Disease in Sudan

Dr. Nabil Azziz and Dr. Achol Marial live in and love the same country. Both are medical doctors with families and both head health organizations. But their country - Sudan - has been torn by a devastating civil war for the past 20 years. Medically, they are united in the fight against Guinea worm disease. The doctors met at in September 2003. Learn more »

Stories From the Field: 6-Year Old Lukma

In a makeshift Guinea worm care center in Savelugu-Nanton, Ghana, 6-year-old Lukma receives treatment for a worm emerging from a blister on the top of his left foot. Abukari Abukari, a local health worker, questions Lukma's mother about her water-filtering practices, reminding her that she must filter all of the family's drinking water to prevent the disease from occurring. Learn more »

Stories From the Field: Yengussie Tebeje

Yengussie Tebeje, 55, sits outside her hut next to a small fire in the rural Ethiopian village of Mosebo. As flies dart around and land on her worn face, she describes her struggle against trachoma, a debilitating eye disease. Learn more »

Stories From the Field: Hamisu Isa

Sitting on a white plastic chair, Hamisu Isa, 35, listens to members of his lymphatic filariasis support group describe their symptoms, challenges, successes, and hopes. For years, he has suffered from the disease's severest form, elephantiasis – a disfiguring condition that causes grotesque swelling of the legs and genitals. But today, Hamisu's life has turned around. He recently earned a teaching certificate, is teaching mathematics and English at a local elementary school a few times a week, and is working in the market part-time. Learn more »

Niger Latrine Program Aids Trachoma Prevention

An assessment of 's latrine project in Niger, undertaken to reduce incidence of trachoma, has shown encouraging results. After one year, household latrines are widely accepted, used and maintained. Learn more »

Guinea Worm Warrior: Abdelgadir El Sid

Some have called him the "Great One." Living for a week on one small sack of supplies, getting food from people along the way, Abdelgadir El Sid is a legend among field workers fighting disease in Africa. In the 1970s, he earned his reputation by uncovering the last case of smallpox in a remote village in Somalia. Having been told that no one there had the disease, he suspected villagers might be reluctant to admit the presence of "a pox upon them" out of shame. So he created a commotion, purposely driving his jeep into a ditch, which attracted everyone in the village to witness the scene, including the last remaining victim of smallpox in the world. Learn more »

Women Red Cross Volunteers Tackle Guinea Worm in Ghana

Ridding a country of its last few thousand cases of Guinea worm disease presents a special challenge. Those cases exist mostly in remote areas, where there are few wells and people draw their drinking water from ponds sometimes rife with Guinea worm larvae. Learn more »

Blog | Mental Health Symposium Spotlights New Programs To Support President's Report

Larry Fricks, a director in Georgia’s department of mental health, introduced an exciting new and successful concept in mental illness recovery at theNineteenth Annual Rosalynn Symposium on Mental Health Policy, Nov. 5-6, 2003. Learn more »

Volunteer Plays Key Role as River Blindness Health Promoter: Making Time to Protect a Community and Fight Disease

Working long hours caring for one of Guatemala's largest coffee plantations and managing six children would leave most people little time to volunteer. Jose Maria Pos, 41, thought the same thing when the Mitzimal farm manager asked him to become the community's river blindness (onchocerciasis) health promoter. Learn more »

Profile: Ernesto Ruiz-Tiben, Technical Director, Center Guinea Worm Eradication Program

Many Americans have never heard of dracunculiasis or more commonly, Guinea worm disease, a painful condition that is contracted when a person consumes water contaminated with water fleas carrying infective larvae. Dr. Ernesto Ruiz-Tiben, however, has had Guinea worm on his mind for the past 20 years. Learn more »

Community Volunteers at Heart of Program

staff coordinating the Guinea Worm Eradication Program in each country cannot be everywhere all the time. Yet, as long as this crippling disease is active anywhere in a region, eradicating it requires a nearly continuous presence in the endemic areas--mostly to prevent disease transmission. Learn more »

Guinea Worm 'Warrior' Fights Disease in Southern Sudan

Ermino Emilio cannot stop the war that has plagued his country for decades, but he can help people in his region of southern Sudan by protecting them from the further torment of Guinea worm disease. Ermino is 's regional coordinator for fighting that disease in Sudan's Bahr el Ghazal Zone, a zone fragmented by the two main warring parties in Sudan. Learn more »

Guinea Worm Eradication in Togo: A Firsthand Account

leads the global campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease in the countries that remain endemic. Among the most endemic is Togo, where Center Public Relations Coordinator Emily Howard witnessed the debilitating impact that the preventable disease has caused. She observed the crusade of health workers in the field to build hope for millions. Following is her three-part account. Learn more »

Clear Vision Is in Their Future: Combating River Blindness in the Americas

The women of the extended Ramirez family—Lisa, Martha, Maria, Anna, and Yesenia—range in age from 16 to 52 and have been involved with 's effort to eliminate onchocerciasis, or river blindness, for a collective total of 25 years. Learn more »

Georgia Forum Identifies Strategies To Improve Mental Health Services for Children

"The day things changed was when someone finally sat down with me and explained what was going on in my brain," said Danielle Smith. "That's when I realized something actually was wrong with me. I wasn't just crazy." Learn more »

Global Partners Plot Final Assault on Guinea Worm Disease

Guinea worm, beware. This was the message at the Seventh African Regional Conference on Guinea Worm Eradication held this spring in Bamako, Mali. More than 200 warriors in the battle against the dreaded disease gathered to plot their strategy for the final push toward eradication. Learn more »

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