Former First Lady, Rosalynn Smith Carter has passed away at the age of 96 with her family by her side at her home in Plains, Georgia. A life-long humanitarian and pioneering mental health campaigner, Mrs Carter was married for 77 years to Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States and the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, who is now 99 years old. The pair worked closely together.

“Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” President Carter said in a statement. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me,” he said.

After President Carter left the White House in 1982, the couple set up the Carter Center, a nonprofit to focus on conflict resolution, democracy, and health. Programmes range from election monitoring in Latin America and conflict resolution work in the Middle East and Africa, to advocacy and education on mental health, and initiatives tackling neglected tropical diseases – or NTDs – like blinding Trachoma and Guinea worm. 

In the 1980s, when the Carter Center began its programme to tackle Guinea worm, there were believed to be more than 3.5 million cases worldwide.

As of last year, the global caseload stood at just 13 - in five countries (Angola, Chad, Ethiopia, Mali, and South Sudan) – which is equivalent to a 99.99 percent decrease. And now, Guinea worm is on course to become only the second human disease - after smallpox - to be eradicated.

The UAE has been a key funder and partner in the fight against Guinea worm, thanks to a 1990 visit by President Carter to Abu Dhabi to meet Sheikh Zayed, the UAE’s founding father, which triggered an enduring philanthropic partnership which continues today.

President Carter and his wife Rosalynn have also been long-time supporters of housing charity, Habitat for Humanity. And, until very recently, despite both being quite frail, spent several days a year volunteering and personally helped to build and renovate thousands of homes.

But it is in the sphere of mental health advocacy that Mrs Carter perhaps leaves her deepest mark. Through her leadership of the Carter Center’s Mental Health Program, the former First Lady broke taboos bringing together health leaders and organisations to discuss public policy issues facing mental health and substance use care systems at a national and state level.

And, as part of an international effort to reduce stigma and discrimination, she created the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism to provide stipends and training to journalists with a view to developing a cadre of better-informed journalists to report more accurately and sensitively.

Fellowships to-date have been awarded to journalists from the United States, Colombia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Romania, South Africa, and New Zealand.

Paige Alexander, the CEO of the Carter Center, described Mrs Carter as “a pioneering first lady” who “touched the hearts of millions” with her “warmth, generosity, and compassion” and “used her powerful and influential voice to bring hope to the most vulnerable”.

US President Joe Biden called the Carters “an incredible family because they brought so much grace to the office”. In a joint statement, president Biden and First Lady Jill Biden said Mrs Carter had “inspired the nation”.

“She was a champion for equal rights and opportunities for women and girls; an advocate for mental health and wellness for every person; and a supporter of the often unseen and uncompensated caregivers of our children, ageing loved ones, and people with disabilities,” they said.

Habitat For Humanity, the Georgia-based charity that the Carters worked for tirelessly, said Mrs Carter was “a compassionate and committed champion of Habitat For Humanity and worked fiercely to help families around the world”.

Former US president Bill Clinton said: “Rosalynn will be forever remembered as the embodiment of a life lived with purpose”. Describing the former first lady as “a champion of human dignity”, he and his wife, Hillary said in a joint statement: “Thanks to her mental health advocacy, more people live with better care and less stigma”.

“Because of her early leadership on childhood immunisation, millions of Americans have grown up healthier. And through her decades of work at the Carter Center and with Habitat for Humanity, she spread hope, health, and democracy across the globe.”