He is 90 years old and still working in the service for humanity and human rights. Former United States President Jimmy Carter who was President from 1977 – 1981 has been working tirelessly through his foundation – the Carter Center based in Atlanta, Georgia and the former American President is never shy to come down to the field and join the front-line in the service for humanity.
Listen to the former American President who is also a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and winner of the Medal of Freedom (America highest award for a civilian ) jubilantly giving a status report on the Neil deGrasse Tyson show on the eradication of Guinea Worm disease. Click HERE to listen to the report!
Several years ago, Jimmy Carter traveled personally to North Korea despite the risk to his safety to gain the release of American prisoners held in the hermit country. Beside his humanitarian effort, the Carter Center is active in the continent of Africa in the eradication of tropical diseases and one particular area that it took credit for is the eradication of Guinea Worm – an epidemic that was so serious that it infected over 3.5 million people in 1986 – and now, through the use of diplomacy, public education and other tools, current reported cases have been reduced to just 126 as of present.
The Carter Center works to eradicate Guinea worm disease in four remaining endemic countries: South Sudan, Mali, Chad, and Ethiopia, all of which are in the continent of Africa.
Guinea Worm is the second epidemic disease to be eradicated after smallpox and incredibly, it was wiped off without the use of vaccines and medicines. Jimmy Carter who was also the Governor of the Southern US State of Georgia created a media stir in 1999 when he explained his decision to quit the church in a 2009 article titled “Losing my religion for equality.” The following year, he officially announced his painful split with the Southern Baptist Convention, an association that was more than 60 years long after his disagreement with the church’s treatment of women in its leadership role.
“Women and girls have been discriminated against for too long in a twisted interpretation of the word of God,” he wrote in the article.
A flood of people have viewed the article on the website of Australia’s The Age newspaper — the highest rated story in the publication’s history — after it was tweeted recently by a U.S. pastor and spiraled on social media. It has been shared over 900,000 times on Facebook and 1,400 times on Twitter, reported ReligionNews. recently.
Sources: CarterCenter and Startalkradio
Listen to the update below…