Read more: Jimmy Carter to Lead Carter Center Delegation to Egypt (عربي) >

Dispatches from Egypt – Carter Center Witnesses Reflect on Election Voices, Symbols >

Below, Deborah Hakes, assistant director of the Carter Center’s Office of Public Information, blogs from Cairo about Jan. 10 election day activities.

Photos:  D. Hakes/The Carter Center
A delegation of 40 witnesses representing 21 countries has been deployed by The Carter Center since mid-November to witness all three phases of voting in Egypt’s lower house parliamentary elections.

A polling station in northern Cairo.  Voting took place Jan. 10-11 for a runoff of the third round of parliamentary elections.

Carter Center witness Nicholas Alexander talks with poll workers on Jan. 10.

A young daughter accompanies her mother to vote in the runoff for the third round of lower house parliamentary elections in Cairo.

A woman voting in Cairo.

A judge answers a voter’s question in a polling center for men in Cairo.

A poll worker checks the ID of a man preparing to vote.

A man casts his ballot toward the end of voting on Jan. 10.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter visits a polling station during runoff voting in Cairo’s Shoubra neighborhood.

A polling official shows President Carter the voters’ registry for that polling station, which lists a voter named “Jimmy Carter.”

Voters dipped their fingers in indelible ink after casting their ballots.

Read more:

Jimmy Carter to Lead Carter Center Delegation to Egypt (عربي) >

Dispatches from Egypt – Carter Center Witnesses Reflect on Election Voices, Symbols >

Filed under: Democracy, Egypt, Elections, Videos

Making bricks from scratch is just one way the Center’s staff is overcoming huge odds to wipe out Guinea worm once and for all. See how the program moves material across a country the size of Texas without using paved roads >

Photo:  G. Dubourthoumieu/The Carter Center
A Congolese woman casts her vote in a polling station in Kinshasa on Nov. 28, 2011. The Democratic Republic of the Congo held national elections Monday.

The challenges are many. The Independent National Election Commission (CENI) must deploy all materials on time to 63,000 polling stations across the country, many in remote, inaccessible places. Security is also a big issue. The national police force must keep the peace and guarantee safety in a very contentious environment.

“The stability of DRC is the stability of the subregion,” said Baya Kara, director of the Carter Center’s election observation mission. “This election is a test of the strength of democratic institutions and the impartiality of CENI; it is important for us to be witness.”

Photo:  G. Dubourthoumieu/The Carter Center
A Congolese man talks with Carter Center delegation leader and former president of Zambia Rupiah Banda (L) in front of a polling station in Kinshasa on Nov. 28, 2011. The Democratic Republic of the Congo held national elections Monday under a cloud of violence after clashes on the final day of campaigning left at least two people dead.

Twenty Carter Center long-term observers have been deployed since August, and they are now joined by others to form a 70-person delegation to observe the polling and counting processes. The group is co-led by former Zambia President Rupiah Banda and Carter Center Vice President for Peace Programs John Stremlau.

To cover the most ground in a country the size of Western Europe, the Center is also supporting the deployment of more than 6,000 domestic observers. This partnership will allow observers to deploy to the furthest corners of the DRC and reach even the most inaccessible areas, and will also enhance the Center’s knowledge and understanding of political context in a very complex country.

Photo:  L. Curtis/The Carter Center
Carter Center long-term observers face challenging road conditions in Kasai Occidental in October 2011.

“One of the most challenging aspects of our work is the logistics,” said Serge Tambwe Badibanga of the domestic observation group Réseau National pour l’Observation et la Surveillance des Elections au Congo (National Network for the Observation and Monitoring of Elections in Congo).  “Some of our observers will travel for two days—by motorcycle, dugout canoes, and bicycle—to reach their polling stations.

Photo:  F. Afsharnia/The Carter Center
Lubakat men with grass skirts and painted faces dance in the streets in Katanga Province to support a presidential candidate in October 2011.

The Carter Center is committed to the long-term stability of the DRC. After observing the country’s 2006 elections, the Center remained engaged through the Human Rights House in Kinshasa to provide direct support to 154 Congolese NGO partners who work against child trafficking, shepherd victims of sexual and gender-based violence through the legal system, demand the transparent and equitable use of natural resources through mining policy reform, and promote electoral reform.

Photo:  G. Dubourthoumieu/The Carter Center
Congolese citizens look for their names on a list outside a polling station in Kinshasa on Nov. 28, 2011.

Quick facts:

DRC President Joseph Kabila’s biggest challenger in this election is opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress. Eleven candidates are running for  president.

DRC’s constitution no longer requires a candidate to gain more than 50 percent of the vote to win, so whoever receives the most votes on Nov. 28 is elected.

Ballots are each a bulging 56 pages; there are more than 18,000 candidates running for seats in the parliamentary elections.

There are 63,000 polling stations and polls will be open on election day from 7:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Read more:  Former Zambia President Rupiah Banda to Lead Carter Center Delegation to DRC’s Election (En anglais et en français)

At The Carter Center, 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.

None of this would have been possible without you–our friends and supporters. Your ongoing generosity makes The Carter Center a life-changing force for millions of people around the world, and we want to say “thank you.”

Please watch our thank-you video >

During this season, what are you thankful for? Share your thoughts with us below.

Today at the sixteenth annual InterAmerican Conference on Onchocerciasis – sponsored by The Carter Center, the Pan American Health Organization, the Lions Clubs International Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – three of the six countries in the Americas that have historically suffered from river blindness announced the good news.  In Colombia, thanks to the tireless work of the ministry of health, river blindness is believed to have been wiped out completely.  In November 2011, Colombia became the first country in the Americas to apply to the World Health Organization for certification of river blindness elimination.

Photo credit: Carter Center/P. Dicampo
Karina Cabrera, left, and Emilse Ovellana, members of a community Mectizan distribution team, walk through a village in Chicacao District, Guatemala, July 16, 2009.

Also today, Guatemala and Mexico announced that they have broken the transmission cycle of river blindness and will halt their Mectizan® drug treatment programs for the disease in 2012, beginning the three-year post treatment monitoring process. (Mectizan is donated by Merck through its Mectizan® Donation Program.)  When the program began, Guatemala and Mexico represented 70 percent of the region’s disease burden, making their success even more noteworthy.

Photo credit: Carter Center/E. Staub
A woman and child look out of the window during a visit by the river blindness elimination brigade to Chiapas, Mexico. The brigade, with the support of the Carter Center’s OEPA, distributes the Merck-donated anti-parasite drug Mectizan, and checks the community for signs of river blindness.

After Mectizan® treatments are stopped, a three-year post treatment monitoring (surveillance) period is required to ensure that the infection does not return.  Colombia is the first country to complete this three year process; Mexico and Guatemala now join Ecuador, which is already in the post treatment monitoring phase.

The two remaining affected countries in Latin America – Brazil and Venezuela – continue to battle river blindness by providing mass treatment with Mectizan® tablets in hopes of interrupting transmission next year.

It is my belief that Colombia’s success will serve as inspiration not only for the other five Latin American countries impacted by this disease, but also for the 30 African countries where most river blindness occurs,” said Frank O. Richards, Jr., M.D., director of the Carter Center’s River Blindness Program. “It will show that elimination at a national scale can be done.”

Read the Nov. 10, 2011, press release issued by Merck (PDF) >    En Español >

Onchocerciasis Elimination Program for the Americas (OEPA) >

Carter Center long-term observer Max Lockie is based in Matadi, Democratic Republic of the Congo.  The Center established an office in Kinshasa in August and deployed 10 long-term observers to seven  provinces: Kinshasa, Bas-Congo, Oriental Province, North Kivu, South Kivu, Katanga, and Kasai Oriental. In September, the Center deployed another 10 long-term observers to the remaining provinces.  They will be joined by an additional 40 observers to monitor events in the days before the Nov. 28 presidential and legislative elections and the entire vote tabulation process.

Despite having studied French for six years in school, spending another year living in France, and taking six previous trips to Francophone Africa, my French vocabulary still can come up short.  In this instance, it was the word sourd-muet that left me smiling and nodding.  I overheard it in a meeting with officials in charge of voter education and civic engagement at the provincial office of the electoral commission.  Later in the car, I had to ask my perfectly trilingual colleague what our most recent interlocutors were talking about.  When she told me that we would be visiting a voter education seminar for the deaf, I didn’t know quite what to expect.

ALL PHOTOS:  M. Lockie/The Carter Center
Matadi, a hilly riverside town 350km west of Kinshasa, that serves as a provincial capital.  This billboard contains an image of the Pont Maréchal, which–with a length of 722 meters–is the longest suspension bridge on the African Continent.

There are a great many muggy Saturday afternoons in Matadi, the hilly riverside town 350km west of Kinshasa that serves as a provincial capital, but few that I will remember as clearly. We arrived in the general area that the elections official told us about and with the aid of our driver, made our way through a hilltop neighborhood away from the central downtown.  A dusty path led us to a basement classroom where the training was being held.  Upon entering the dark and narrow room, we could feel the eyes of the room fix on us–this is normal.  Matadi, and much of the Bas-Congo region, has an alarmingly low level of international partners working on the ground, and our presence almost always turns heads. What was different this time was that we didn’t hear the usual cries of “Mundele!” the Kikongo word for a white person, which follows us wherever we go.  Instead we simply waved, and 30 pairs of hands instantly popped up to greet us.

A deaf voter–one of 30 who participated–raises his hand to ask a question during a voter education seminar in October 2011. Trainers used flipbooks of illustrative animations to explain electoral elements such as voter eligibility, legal contentions after the vote, and how to mark a ballot.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), voter education is at once a crucial and enormous task.  The country occupies a landmass approximately the size of Western Europe, with much of the
population not easily accessible due to a lack of good roads.  This means most projects require cooperation at all levels, and today was no exception. The voter education session itself was organized by the electoral commission but conducted by Antenne de Formation a Distance (AFAD), a local group funded by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), an international body that funds electoral activities worldwide.

IFES had furnished AFAD with a flipbook of illustrative animations that covered the whole range of electoral elements  from voter eligibility to profiles of good candidates to legal contentions after the vote. A good while was also spent on the more technical aspects such as how one moves through the different desks in the polling station and the mechanics of marking a ballot.  There have been only three previous democratic exercises in recent years after 40 years of authoritarian rule in DRC, so no aspects of the democratic process can be omitted or taken for granted.

The voters were engaged every step of the way; asking questions, clarifying points, and often speaking amongst themselves to ensure mutual understanding of the material…all without saying a word.

An AFAD trainer presents IFES-developed voter education material with the aid of a sign language interpreter to his left.

As an international elections observer I meet with individuals, officials, and organizations focused on voter education every day.  Without fail they tell me about the low level of education of the general public, that many are illiterate, and voters are susceptible to charismatic politicians with big promises and trucks full of sugar, beer, and bread.  But on this day, my partner and I couldn’t help but feel that something was going right in the DRC as we watched those who literally have no voice gain the capacity to express themselves on election day.

Nicole Kruse talks to students at Summerour Middle School in Norcross, Ga., on Oct. 28.

Center staff will speak to Atlanta-area high schools about the global peace and health efforts of The Carter Center, particularly in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.  They include Nicole Kruse, chief  development officer (health), Office of Institutional Development; Chansi Powell, program associate, Democracy Program; Hrair Balian, director, Conflict Resolution Program; Shandal Sullivan, executive administrative assistant to Dr. Don Hopkins, Health Programs; Colette Le Jeune, program assistant (peace), Office of Institutional Development;  Erin Crysler, program associate, Human Rights Program;  and Samantha Young, intern, Liberia Mental Health Project.

Chansi Powell briefs the Model United Nations AIS Club at Atlanta International School on the Carter Center’s global initiatives Nov. 1.

The goal of the conference, under the theme “France Atlanta:  Together Towards Innovation,” is to further strengthen the ties between France and the Southeast United States.  The Ambassador of France to the United States, Mr. Francois Delattre; Georgia Governor Nathan Deal; and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed have endorsed the event.

Samantha Young discusses the Center’s Liberia mental health project with students at North Atlanta High School on Nov. 1.

The 2011 program includes four scientific symposia, two economic workshops, five cultural events, and two humanitarian events, including the Carter Center component.

For more information about “France-Atlanta 2011,” visit the website:  www.france-atlanta.org.

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.

Overcoming challenges is one of the foundations of Georgia Tech’s Computing for Good (C4G) initiative, through which students and faculty explore computing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems.

“We’re all familiar with the impact of computing on things like business productivity in the developed world, but I think we are just starting to see the ways that technology can have impact on the developing world,” says Dr. Zegura, professor and chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Computer Science. “Our C4G work with The Carter Center in Liberia is a fantastic opportunity for us to take some theories of what might work in an extremely technologically limited setting and actually apply them on the ground.”

Since 2010, Georgia Tech has collaborated with the Carter Center’s Mental Health Program Liberia to provide the software and support that the Center and the Liberian government need to monitor the nation’s progress in building a sustainable mental health care system. The Carter Center’s five-year project in Liberia is training a cadre of local mental health clinicians and working to reduce stigma and discrimination against mental illnesses.

All photos credit: P. Rohe
A computer services business in Monrovia, Liberia.

One of the world’s poorest nations, Liberia still is recovering from a brutal 14-year civil war that ended in 2003. Because millions of Liberians suffer from mental illnesses but have virtually nowhere to turn to receive cost-effective treatments, the Liberian government has made improving access to mental health services a priority. However, one of the major challenges of this effort has been for the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to identify where the greatest areas of need are and how to most effectively use resources to address those needs.

“Georgia Tech really has helped The Carter Center and Liberia to leapfrog over technological challenges that would have delayed our ability to achieve our goals or diverted our limited funding from other important activities,” says Shelly Terrazas, assistant director for the Carter Center’s mental health project in Liberia, who is herself an alumnus of Georgia Tech. “Georgia Tech’s support has been invaluable as we seek to prevent unnecessary suffering among some of the world’s most vulnerable people.”

Dr. Zegura and her C4G team of undergraduate and graduate students spent months designing software that allows the Center and the Liberian government to anonymously track patient outcomes to evaluate the clinician training program and conduct health surveillance and monitoring. Her team also extensively researched computers, smartphones, and other devices to see which would be most appropriate for the country’s uncertain electricity supply and extremely humid and hot tropical climate.

Careful consideration was taken in how to design these computer-based patient evaluation tools so they could be used easily by the new mental health clinicians, many of whom had limited or no previous experience working with computers. In addition, understanding that many of the clinicians will work in very isolated and rural areas, Georgia Tech created an online tool for the clinicians to stay connected with one another, remotely support each other, and brainstorm options for difficult patient cases.

Georgia Institute of Technology School of Computer Science Chair Dr. Ellen Zegura spent hours training Liberia’s first class of 21 mental health clinicians to use specially designed software and custom Hewlett-Packard laptops to help The Carter Center and the Liberian government track progress in their efforts to build a sustainable mental health care system.

Not one to rest on her laurels, Dr. Zegura is busy planning the next step of the project now that the clinicians are deployed to the field and using the technology she and her team worked so hard to provide.

“I am excited about the next four years of this project and how Computing for Good can help The Carter Center and its partners not only do good, but also how we can contribute to a greater understanding of how these technologies can be used around the world,” says Dr. Zegura.

In August 2011, Dr. Zegura participated in the graduation ceremonies of the first class of Carter Center-trained Liberian mental health clinicians, handing each of the new graduates custom laptops provided by The Carter Center. Dr. Zegura plans to continue to work with The Carter Center to evaluate the use of these tools as the Center completes its mental health work in Liberia over the next four years.

All Photos: D. Hakes/The Carter Center
Liberians lined up to vote on a rainy morning in Monrovia on Tuesday, Oct. 11. Credible elections in 2011 are a key test of whether the country’s institutions are strong enough and its leaders are sufficiently committed to creating the conditions for an open and competitive process. This is the first election to be administered primarily by the National Elections Commission and the first to be held under Liberia’s 1986 constitution.

At the William Tubman High School in Monrovia, Liberians waited in line for several hours ahead of voting, which started at 8 a.m. There were 16 candidates for president, including Winston Tubman of the Congress for Democratic Change, Charles Brumskine of the Liberty Party, and current President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of the Unity Party. If a single candidate does not receive a majority vote (50 percent plus one vote) on Oct. 11, a presidential runoff election will be held.

Voters were enthusiastic despite the rain, which varied from a drizzle to a  heavy downpour all morning in Monrovia.

Tape marks where voters will soon line up on Oct. 11 before polls opened.

Carter Center delegation leader General Dr. Yakubu Gowon and Field Office Director Alexander Bick inspect a stack of ballots before voting begins on Oct. 11.

A polling official looks up a voter’s ID card to be sure they are registered to vote in that location. Liberia’s National Elections Commission hired and trained  more than 27,000 poll workers for  4,457 polling places on election day.

Part of poll opening procedures by polling station staff includes sealing the empty ballot boxes.

Voting gets under way at the William Tubman High School.

Polling staff answer questions from Liberians in line to vote.

National, political party, and independent party observers in their designated seating area watch as a polling official checks the ID of a voter.

General Gowon watches a woman cast her ballot on Tuesday morning in Monrovia.

A polling staffer in Monrovia holds a woman’s infant as she casts her ballot, then inks the woman’s finger with indelible ink.

A woman votes in Paynesville.

Voters wait in line at Liberia University.

General Gowon addresses the media on election day morning, as others take shelter from the rain.

Carter Center intern Aliya Naim observes polling in Paynesville.

Polls closed at 6 p.m. on Oct. 11. At this Waterside polling station, the presiding officer cuts the seals off a ballot box to start the counting process, as a polling official holds a lantern so he can see.

Carter Center observers watch the counting process in Monrovia.

Read more about Liberia’s historic elections >

“The poorest, most isolated, most neglected, quite often, the most hopeless people, on earth…now have new hope that their future will be free of this dreaded disease,” said President Carter.

Guinea worm disease—which causes agonizing pain and leaves people incapacitated for weeks, even months at a time—once was endemic to 21 nations in Africa and Asia, afflicting approximately 3.5 million people when eradication efforts began in 1986.

Today, the disease is poised to become the second human disease, after smallpox, to be wiped out and the first to be eradicated without the use of a vaccine or medical treatment.

As the last cases in an eradication campaign are the most difficult and expensive to track, treat, and prevent, the United Kingdom Department for International Development will contribute approximately US $31 million, if other donors come forward, to help end Guinea worm disease transmission before 2015.

“Britain is ready to help fund the final push to eradicate this debilitating disease, and we now need others to join us in taking this historic opportunity to rid the world of Guinea worm,” said United Kingdom International Development Minister Stephen O’Brien.

Other participants in the press conference included Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, Carter Center Vice President of Health Programs Dr. Donald Hopkins, and Laurie Lee, of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who commented on the scale of the work achieved until now, and the importance for donors to come together and secure the funds to see this through.

“Guinea worm is a painful disease, which has horrendous consequences for sufferers in terms of their immediate health and in terms of their education and employment,” President Carter said. “I welcome the challenge laid down by the British government…I call on other donors to match their efforts.”

Read the press release: Britain to Help Carter Center Secure Worldwide Eradication of Worm Disease >

Photo credit: Carter Center/ J. Cobb
(Left to Right: Minister O’Brien, President Carter)
“It has never been a question of if we can rid the world of this ancient disease – but when. For the price of a sandwich, we can prevent someone in the developing world from catching this terrible disease,” said Minister O’Brien.

Photo credit: Carter Center/ J. Cobb
(Left to Right: Minister O’Brien, President Carter, and Director-General Chan)
“The U.K. has shown its willingness and staying power to help eradicate this debilitating disease. I call on other donors to match their efforts,” President Carter said.

Photo credit: Carter Center/ L. Gubb
Today, South Sudan harbors the vast majority of the world’s remaining cases of Guinea worm disease, which can incapacitate patients for weeks as a worm painfully emerges from a lesion on the skin. In February 2010, Dario Mere (above) suffered worms emerging from both his legs and received free Carter Center-supported treatment and health education at his home in Terakeka County, South Sudan from trained health workers and volunteers.

Photo credit: Carter Center/ L. Gubb
Dr. Donald Hopkins, vice president for Health Programs at The Carter Center, shows South Sudanese children how to prevent Guinea worm disease when they visit their local water source. Dr. Hopkins, a central player in the Center’s work on Guinea worm reminded the International community that the people doing the most to wipe out this disease are the endemic communities, themselves, who need international support overcome this ancient plague: “Resources are especially important at the end of the campaign. It gets more expensive to treat individual cases. We also need to intensify our surveillance of vulnerable regions,” Dr. Hopkins said.