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How many times have you heard someone say, "I couldn't have done it alone?" At The Carter Center, these words echo throughout our halls every day.

The Center was founded on the principles of partnership and collaboration. We believe that, in many cases, there are already adequate resources available to address a problem. The challenge is to use those resources most effectively by finding unique ways to combine the strengths of institutions and individuals, without competing with each other or duplicating efforts. Each of our diverse programs and projects in more than 30 countries, including the United States, draws on these principles in an attempt to improve overall quality of life.

Our method is twofold. First, we identify creative ways to address problems that affect the most vulnerable people -- those who have access to the fewest resources. Then we build partnerships to implement solutions that achieve lasting results. Because the Center and its programs are not aligned politically with any particular party, group, or government, we are sometimes able to step in where governments and other agencies cannot go and mobilize diverse world leaders and others to bring about change.

Health Initiatives Fight Disease in Sudan

This newsletter is full of stories about how we can combine resources with others to resolve a dispute, fight a disease, or implement human rights standards. One of the most striking examples is happening in Sudan.

In late March, President and Mrs. Carter traveled to that country, where the most recent war has raged for 12 years. The Carter Center began health and agriculture programs in Sudan in the late 1980s, and President Carter has met many times with the warring parties to try to bring about a resolution. But the bloody war, rooted in hundreds of years of religious strife and economic deprivation, went on.

Many traditional and nontraditional methods of intercession have failed to stop the carnage. But by acting as an impartial mediator, President Carter was able to convince all major parties to the conflict to honor a two-month cease-fire. The parties didn't agree to stop fighting because they had suddenly resolved their differences; rather, they stopped fighting because President Carter got them to agree on a common goal: improving the health of people all over the country. The cease-fire was crafted so the Center, working with others, could implement a wide range of health initiatives.

Immediately after the cease-fire was announced, The Carter Center and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began providing technical assistance to complement pre-existing activities conducted by UNICEF and other nongovernmental organizations. Working together, we already have trained 1,265 additional community health volunteers and visited 2,000 villages, many of which had not been reached before. More than 100,000 people have been taught how to prevent Guinea worm disease, and more than 30,000 children have received critical vaccines.

Shortly before the cease-fire was to expire in May, the Sudanese government and opposition parties agreed to extend it another two months. President and Mrs. Carter will travel to Sudan in July to explore how the peace process might be advanced.

Carter Center Continues Work in Nicaragua

This is but one example of how collaboration and partnership can help people in need. There are many others.

In Nicaragua, our Council of Freely Elected Heads of Government is working with the United Nations Development Program to resolve property issues that stem from the redistribution of land during the Sandinista government. In Ethiopia, we've teamed up with other groups to conduct workshops on human rights protections, and in Liberia, we've formed a consortium of U.S.-based nongovernmental groups to advance the peace process at the grass-roots level.

In Guyana, we're working closely with USAID and other donor agencies to coordinate aid programs and to help the government develop the internal capacity to meet its own needs. And at home, the Center's Atlanta Project brings residents from the city's neediest neighborhoods together with businesses, service providers, and government agencies to encourage them to work together toward common goals.

Working together--that's what it's all about. Individually, we can make a difference. Together, we can change the world.