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The Carter Center Health and Peace Programs appreciate the continued support of our foundation, government, and corporate donors and are pleased to highlight their contributions in these regular Web features.

Featured June 2009 (Updated September 2013)

The Carter Center is proud of its long-term partnership with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation in the fight against blinding trachoma. In August 2008, the Hilton Foundation pledged $10 million to The Carter Center for the Trachoma Control Program in Mali, Niger, Ghana, and South Sudan. The grant challenged donor organizations and individuals to provide an additional $10 million in support for The Carter Center's efforts to prevent trachoma over the course of five years, matched by the Hilton Foundation on a one-to-one basis. The funds were used to reduce trachoma by working in partnership with the national Ministries of Health in these African countries.

The transformative grant and matching funds helped achieve success against blinding trachoma in Ghana, which met its targets in 2008. The grant also provided key support to the last remaining NGO assisting the trachoma program in South Sudan - which is widely considered to have the most intense trachoma transmission in the world, with some children as young as nine or ten years old blinded by trachoma. Finally, the grant laid the groundwork for the elimination of blinding trachoma in Mali and Niger, both of which are on track to meet their targets for elimination by 2015.

In February 2013, the Hilton Foundation pledged a new grant of $6.44 million to The Carter Center for trachoma elimination in Mali and Niger. The Foundation has again challenged the Center to raise dollar-for-dollar matching funds from other organizations and individuals. This major new investment from the Hilton Foundation is critical to ensure that Mali and Niger meet their goal of eliminating blinding trachoma by 2015.

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation is a philanthropic organization which provides funds to nonprofit organizations working to improve the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people throughout the world. Founded in 1944 by hotel entrepreneur and business leader Conrad N. Hilton, the foundation currently conducts strategic initiatives in six priority areas: providing safe water, ending chronic homelessness, preventing substance abuse, helping children affected by HIV and AIDS, supporting transition-age youth in foster care, and extending Conrad Hilton's support for the work of Catholic Sisters. A shared dedication to improving health prompted the partnership between The Carter Center and the Hilton Foundation in 1991. Since then, the Hilton Foundation has supported the Trachoma Control, Guinea Worm Eradication, River Blindness, and Mental Health Programs. This new challenge grant continues the Hilton Foundation's history of leadership in trachoma control and elimination in Africa.

Trachoma is the world's leading cause of infectious blindness. The World Health Organization estimates that 2.2 million people are visually impaired and 1.2 million are blind due to trachoma, the majority of them women. Trachoma is caused by repeated infections of the eye and eyelid by bacteria transmitted by flies, hands and fingers, or household cloths. The repeated infections lead to scarring of the inner eyelid. In turn, the eyelid margin turns inward and the eyelashes rub against the cornea, causing irreversible blindness. This condition, known as trichiasis, is painful and debilitating, and leads to many social and economic losses for individuals, families and communities affected by the disease. The disease can be prevented or treated through the utilization of the SAFE strategy: Surgery, Antibiotics (Zithromax®, donated by Pfizer Inc), Facial cleanliness, and Environmental improvements (such as the provision of latrines).

With the generous support of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, it is possible to prevent the blindness and suffering caused by trachoma in millions of individuals. This collaboration between the Hilton Foundation and The Carter Center contributes to the prosperity and stability of these endemic countries through ending the burden of blinding trachoma.