On World NTD Day Jan. 30, 2022, more than 100 landmarks in over 30 nations lit up to bring awareness to neglected diseases that affect 1.7 billion people. Above, the Carter Center's "Sightless Among Miracles" statue.
The Carter Center main sign.
Carter Center CEO Paige Alexander and Maria Thacker Goethe, CEO, Center for Global Health Innovation, in front of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum.
The home of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter.
Plains High School and Museum, Plains, Georgia.
Plains Train Depot.
Main Street downtown, Plains, Georgia.
Georgia Southwestern University in nearby Americus illuminated a statue of Rosalynn Carter on its campus.
Emory University Rollins School of Public Health.
Skyview Atlanta Ferris Wheel.
Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
WISH Foundation, Baharat Msheireb Square, Qatar.
Niagara Falls (Photo: Canadian Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases).
Country partners celebrate in local towns and villages, where communities are making great strides in the fight against NTDs. Above, people celebrate in Yei Village, South Sudan.
Budi County, Lotukei Payam, Piobokoi Village, South Sudan.
Seri, Kanke LGA of Plateau State, Nigeria.
• 100+ sites to join observance of World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day
• Great Wall, Colosseum, Carter Center to glow orange, purple
• 20 little-known diseases affect 1.7 billion people
ATLANTA — The third annual World NTD Day is Jan. 30, 2022, highlighting the global commitment to ending neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), which cause immeasurable suffering among the world’s most marginalized communities. On Sunday, more than 100 landmarks in over 30 nations will light up to celebrate progress and ensure NTDs remain a global priority.
“There should be no such thing as a neglected disease, tropical or otherwise. With the resources, knowledge, and technology available to us today, there is little excuse for millions of people to continue to suffer from these preventable illnesses,” said former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who, with former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, founded The Carter Center in 1982.
For over 35 years, The Carter Center has been a pioneer in eradicating, eliminating, and improving control of five NTDs: Guinea worm, lymphatic filariasis, river blindness, trachoma, and schistosomiasis, as well as uniquely addressing malaria. The Center’s Mental Health Program has begun working with NTD programs to address mental health issues related to these debilitating diseases. About one in five people around the world are affected by NTDs, which can disfigure and sometimes be fatal.
From the Colosseum in Rome to the Tokyo Tower to the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, the world will come together to support putting an end to these debilitating and preventable diseases.
The Center has joined partners to light up these buildings and monuments on Jan. 30:
Plains, Ga.:
-Home of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, the Jimmy Carter Boyhood Farm, Plains High School and Museum, and Main Street downtown
-Georgia Southwestern University in nearby Americus will illuminate a statue of Rosalynn Carter on its campus.
Atlanta:
-The Carter Center main sign and the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library & Museum (including the Kirbo building on Ponce de Leon Avenue and Sightless Among Miracles statue on the grounds)
-Emory Rollins School of Public Health (Jumbotron)
-Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport
-Mercedes-Benz Stadium
-Skyview Atlanta Ferris Wheel
-Atlanta City Hall
Chicago, New Jersey, Atlanta (Sightless Among Miracles Statues):
-Three organizations, The Lions Clubs International Foundation, Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA, and The Carter Center will each light up their “Sightless Among Miracles” statues in Oakbrook, Illinois (near Chicago), Kenilworth, New Jersey, and Atlanta, respectively. These statues were commissioned by philanthropist John Moores and created by sculptor R.T. Wallen to raise awareness of the suffering caused by river blindness. These three organizations have worked together with endemic countries and other partners for over 20 years to eliminate river blindness and other neglected tropical diseases.
-UAE: World Expo in Dubai.
-Qatar: Baharat Msheireb square in Doha. Supported by World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH), an initiative of Qatar Foundation.
-Saudi Arabia: Carter Center partner Alwaleed Philanthropies to light up Kingdom Tower in Riyadh.
-Nigeria, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda: Country partners will celebrate in local towns and villages, where communities are making great strides in the fight against NTDs.
World NTD Day 2022 comes just days after the world learned of historic progress in the global effort to eradicate Guinea worm disease. On Jan. 26, The Carter Center announced that just 14 (provisional) human cases of Guinea worm disease were reported worldwide in 2021. When The Carter Center assumed leadership of the global Guinea Worm Eradication Program in 1986, about 3.5 million human cases occurred annually in 21 countries in Africa and Asia.
The WHO has elevated to the level of an official observance under the leadership of Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. World NTD Day 2022 is the catalyst to launch an energizing global movement – 100% Committed to end neglected tropical diseases.
The World Health Organization designates these 20 conditions as neglected tropical diseases, or NTDs: Buruli ulcer, Chagas disease, dengue and chikungunya, dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease), echinococcosis, foodborne trematodiases, human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), leishmaniasis, leprosy (Hansen’s disease), lymphatic filariasis, mycetoma, chromoblastomycosis and other deep mycoses, onchocerciasis (river blindness), rabies, scabies and other ectoparasitoses, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiases, snakebite envenoming, taeniasis/cysticercosis, trachoma, and yaws and other endemic treponematoses.
World NTD Day is made possible through the leadership and support of the Crown Prince Court of Abu Dhabi. For more than 30 years – beginning with a meeting in 1990 between former President Carter and Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan, President of the UAE – the UAE has shown a commitment to ending preventable diseases that affect the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities.
Key hashtags: #WorldNTDDay #BeatNTDs #100PercentCommitted
The main colors for lighting are orange and purple. More information on World NTD Day and a full list of partners are here:
Carter Center Celebrates 2022 World NTD Day
The Carter Center: Leader in the Eradication and Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases
Contact: Rennie Sloan, Rennie.Sloan@cartercenter.org
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The Carter Center
Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope.
A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has helped to improve life for people in over 80 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; and improving mental health care. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide.
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