In 1982 Sir, you set up the Carter Center, what did you hope to set out to achieve with
it?
Well our first hope at the Carter Center was to have like a small Camp David here so I
could negotiate peace agreements between countries that were at war or likely to go into armed
conflict, and we still do that as a matter of fact.
But er we also had a basic premise of not duplicating what other people do…So this
leaves us in a, with a chance just to fill kind of vacuums in the world.
I think the reason we've been so successful is that it all goes back to his human rights
policy.
Because the people in the developing world somehow know that Jimmy cares about them.
He understands that our responsibilities to others do not end when we leave office.
And that I think is an inspiration to many other politicians and leaders in the world.
It's an example that many of us should try to follow.
The work of The Carter Center is spearheaded by the President and Rosalynn Carter who are
at the heart of every project that is undertaken.
Millions of lives have been improved in over 80 countries thanks to their tireless work.
We've taken on 5 tropical diseases.
Last year the Carter Center treated 36 million people for these kind of diseases.
We go into the village or train people to do so and actually treat the people in their
own village and give them credit for it and so it makes it a matter of great pride for
them and er, a restoration of not only their health but their self-respect and hope for
the future.
So it's a very exciting er, series of projects, that we, that we, um, undertake every day
at the Carter Center.
And you're close to eradicating guinea worm.
Yes we started out er with guinea worm in about 26000 villages in 20 countries in Asia
and Africa and we found at the beginning 3 and half million cases of guinea worm.
Er last year we only found 148 cases instead of 3 and a half million, and so far this year
we've only found 9 cases…And so it's a very successful program so far and the villages
where we have eliminated it will never know a case of guinea worm again.
What do you feel are some of the most pressing issues now that you would like to address?
Well I've written 28 books, that's the way I make a living, and um, my last book was
about the horrible abuse of women and girls around the world.
Y'know I think it's the worst, unaddressed issue that the world faces today.
And those of us in the more advanced countries don't know much about horrible abuse of girls
whose genitals are mutilated when they're very young, children, er, who are killed because
a girl is raped by strangers and her family kills her because, to protect their own nation's
honour, er, these kinds of things go on in the more remote parts of the world as far
as we're concerned.
But even in the United States…human slavery now is greater than it ever was during the
18th of 19th century.
In Atlanta Georgia we have between 200-300 girls sold into sexual slavery every month..
And on our college campuses in America, in almost every college, the sexual abuse of
girl students is horrendous and it's not addressed directly because the college owners and administrators
don't want it to be known that they have sexual assaults still taking place on their college
campuses.
And the same thing applies obviously in the military.
President Carter has always been so inspiring.
He when he left office he seemed to do even more and his strong stand on women's issues
and his strong moral compass you know he's a man that does not, does not seem to be in
any way making waves in order to get headlines.
He does, he takes a strong stand because of what he believes and he has such faith and
such conviction.