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FORMER US PRESIDENT, JIMMY CARTER DONATES $10M TO END RIVER BLINDNESS IN NIGERIA

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Former
President Jimmy Carter hopes a $10 million donation to end river blindness in
Nigeria where it is most prevalent will help spark a global effort to eliminate
the disease. Billionaire philanthropist Emeka Offor of Nigeria announced the
donation to the Carter Center during an event there on Friday, the Associated
Press reported.
Center
officials said the donation is the largest from an individual African donor in
its history. Nigeria has set a 2020 goal to eliminate the disease that causes a
rash or skin discoloration and eye disease that can lead to blindness. The
larvae that cause the disease are transmitted by biting black flies. Carter
told reporters that the World Health Organization determines which diseases are
targeted for eradication.

“If we can
prove this with Sir Emeka’s help in Nigeria, with 40 per cent of the world’s
problems, then I don’t think there’s much doubt we can get WHO to say ‘OK,
let’s do it for the whole world,”‘ Carter said.
Carter says
Offor’s support will help gain influence with the Nigerian government.
Offor, who
leads an oil and gas conglomerate, said he will do everything possible to
engage government and fellow corporate officials on the issue. He called
Friday’s announcement “a high point” in his life and said the donation and
others he has made toward combatting polio is a way to give back to his
country.
The human
rights organization Carter founded after leaving the White House has worked in
Nigeria since 1988 and plans to focus on eliminating the disease in seven
states. Center officials said they will work with the Nigerian Ministry of
Health to distribute a drug that fights the disease more often and in more
locations.
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