Eleven African First Ladies including the First Lady of the Republic of The Gambia, Fatoumatta Bah Barrow recently gathered in India to discuss issues relating to the health of people with a focus on infertility and stigma.
The event was meant to raise awareness while acknowledging the role of media in influencing society to create a cultural shift and to break the stigma around infertility in generally. It is believed that the media has a great role to raise awareness on sensitive topics such as 'Male Infertility' and infertility prevention through the 'Merck More than a Father' Campaign, as well as the importance of following a healthy lifestyle for the prevention of diabetes and hypertension.
The initiative is also designed to arm journalists in understanding the infertility issue in African communities and to learn the best media practices to cover such issues, thereby raising awareness and following international standards of reporting and media ethics.
More than 10,000 participants including healthcare providers, policymakers, researchers, academia and media representatives from 70 English, French, Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries attended the Luminary through hybrid model to benefit five parallel scientific and social sessions to advance healthcare capacity and awareness in 42 critical and underserved medical specialties. Merck Foundation is providing 1700 scholarships to impact doctors from 50 countries in 42 critical and underserved specialties.
Welcoming the participants at the annual confab theme 'More Than a Mother' Campaign, Senator Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation and chairperson of Merck Foundation Africa, Asia Luminary, reminded that together they shared experiences and discussed the impact of 'our programs' to transform patient care and raise awareness on a wide range of sensitive and critical social and health.
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He said that it is great to remember that Merck Foundation provided 138 scholarships of Oncology Training in many sub-specialties to doctors 37 African countries, many of whom have become the first Oncologists in their countries. "We are making history together in Africa, with our Ambassadors, First Ladies of Africa and our partners, Tata Hospital and Krishna University."
Prof. Dr. Frank Stangenberg-Haverkamp, chairman of both Executive Board of E. Merck KG and Merck Foundation Board of Trustees, disclosed that their goal is to improve the overall health and well-being of people by building healthcare capacity and providing access to quality and equitable healthcare solutions in Africa, Asia and beyond.
"I am proud to share that Merck Foundation has provided more than 1700 scholarships to young doctors from 50 countries in 42 critical and underserved specialties such as Oncology and Cancer care, Diabetes, Endocrinology, Cardiovascular, Fertility Care, Embryology, Sexual and Reproductive Medicine and many more." he said.
