Few realized the significance when the UAE’s late founding father, HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, invited Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter to the UAE for the first time in July of 1990. The 39th president of the United States introduced his initiative to free the world of a little-known parasitic disease that had a debilitating impact on millions of lives in Africa and Asia. Sheikh Zayed responded with a personal donation to the Carter Center’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program which would kick off a long-standing commitment by the Al Nahyan family to disease eradication. The decades-long UAE-Carter Center partnership has helped avert at least 80 million cases of this devastating disease and has expanded to eliminate additional neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) that affect the world’s marginalized and most vulnerable communities. Hear Carter Center Board Chair and grandson Jason Carter discuss his family’s multigenerational friendship and partnership with the UAE.
