Sir Emeka Offor Foundation

Offor, Carter Center to jointly fight River Blindness in Nigeria

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Sir Emeka Offor meet in London

LONDON -May 30, 2014-

The Sir Emeka Offor Foundation and the Carter Center have strengthened ties to wipe out onchocerciasis (river blindness) disease in Nigeria. The Executive Vice Chair of the Chrome Group and founder of the Sir Emeka Offor Foundation, Sir Emeka Offor, met for the first time with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn, in London recently to discuss their respective organizations’ partnership to eliminate onchocerciasis, which they both agreed is an often neglected disease that causes immense suffering in Nigeria.

During the meeting, the teams explored ways to strengthen their combined efforts to stop the needless suffering caused by the preventable parasitic disease. Nigeria accounts for 40 percent of the world's onchocerciasis.

"Together, the Offor Foundation, The Carter Center, the Nigeria Federal Ministry of Health and State Ministries of Health are working to wipe out this disease from seven states in Southeast and South South Nigeria (Abia, Anambra, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, and Imo states)," the statement said.

Last year, Sir Offor donated a total of $250,000 to The Carter Center. Earlier in the year, a team of field scientists from the Carter Center paid a courtesy visit to Sir Offor’s corporate headquarter in Abuja, where he explained his intentions to support the efforts of the Center towards their continued health work in Nigeria.

There has not been any official statement yet from both organizations as to the outcome of the May 30th meeting in London, but the SEOF views the meeting as very productive and promising for the goal of RB elimination in Nigeria.

Source: Written by Dr. Edwin Ndukwe