• Discusses progress of  ongoing Trachoma elimination program that the two entities are jointly conducting in Ethiopia.
• Future collaboration to eliminate River Blindness in Uganda is in the pipeline.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 26 April, 2015:  A high-level delegation from the Noor Dubai Foundation recently visited the Carter Centre in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States.

Jimmy Carter, former US president and Chairman of The Carter Centre and senior members from the Carter Centre received the delegation from Noor Dubai headed by His Excellency Engineer Essa Al Maidoor, Chairman of Noor Dubai Foundation.

Officials from the Carter Centre presented a report that highlighted the achievements and progress of the ongoing Trachoma elimination program that Noor Dubai and The Carter Centre are jointly conducting in Ethiopia.

The three-year programme that was initiated in January 2014 is aimed to control and eliminate the blinding form of trachoma in the Amhara Region, which is the most endemic of the 10 regions in Ethiopia.

The programme aims to treat 18 million individuals living under poverty in 167 districts across Amhara region during the three year time frame.

Trachoma is a bacterial infection of the eye that eventually causes blindness if left untreated, and is caused mainly by the lack of tools for basic hygiene, clean water and adequate sanitation.

The delegation examined the progress of the Trachoma elimination program based on the following areas: Surgeries and operational theatres, medicine and antibiotics distribution, latrines and educational health programs.

The two sides also discussed future collaboration to help eliminate river blindness in Uganda. 

Uganda’s goal is to eliminate the disease by 2020. More than 99% of cases of this disease are found in Africa. It goes by the technical name 'onchocerciasis,' and it spreads through small black flies that breed in fast-flowing, highly oxygenated waters.

In 2009, Noor Dubai Foundation and the Carter Centre worked together to eliminate the disease and reach out to more than 2.1 million people.

Noor Dubai Foundation discussed their keenness to collaborate in such pertinent programs to help restore eyesight or prevent blindness in populations that live in extreme poverty and need our immediate attention and compassion. Since its inception in 2008, the charity has benefitted the lives to 23 million people globally.

Noor Dubai Foundation will hold theArt4Sight exhibition and auction on the 28^th of April at the Zabeel Ladies Club. Several prominent national and international artists have donated their artwork for this noble cause and the proceeds that will be raised through the auction will help fund the Foundation’s humanitarian preventable-blindness programs globally.

The delegates from Noor Dubai also included Dr Manal Taryam, CEO of Noor Dubai Foundation and Mahmoud Yousif Al Ali, Head of Media at the Dubai Health Authority and the delegates from The Carter Centre also included Amb. (Ret.) Mary Ann Peters, CEO of the Carter Centre, Kelly Callahan, Director of the Trachoma Control Program and Philip J Wise, Vice President of the Carter Centre.