African First Ladies discuss healthcare as Merck Foundation marks 6th anniversary

Speaking at the Merck Foundation Africa Asia Luminary in Mumbai, India, Dr. Frank Stangenberg-Haverkamp, the Chairman of Merck Foundation Board of Trustees said the organization remains committed to improving the lives of people in line with its vision of ensuring that “everyone can lead a healthy and happy life.”

Over a decade of the organization’s development programs, it has provided more than 1700 scholarships to young doctors from 50 countries in 42 critical and underserved specialties such as oncology, cancer care and diabetes.

Many of the scholarships were conducted in India, where a state of art clinical training was provided at prestigious training institutions of Merck Foundation’s partners.

 “At Merck Foundation, our goal is improving overall health and well-being by building healthcare capacity and by providing access to quality and equitable healthcare solutions in the Africa, Asia and beyond,” said Stangenberg-Haverkamp.

“I strongly believe that improved access to quality and equitable healthcare results in a nation’s wellbeing, fostering economic growth, social stability, and individual stability,” he said.

African First Ladies from 11 countries, who also serve as Ambassadors of Merck Foundation’s “More Than a Mother” initiative attended the annual conference held for the first time in India.

Discussions centered on improving access to quality and equitable healthcare, healthcare capacity building and breaking infertility stigma among others.

Botswana’s First Lady, Neo Jane Masisi noted that partnership with Merck Foundation in the area of health has led to positive outcomes on the continent and urged continuous campaign to break infertility stigma.

Participants shared experiences and discussed the impact of the organization’s programs to transform patient care and raise awareness on a wide range of sensitive and critical social and health issues.

The event also served as an occasion to mark the Cancer Awareness Month that is being observed in October, aimed at raising awareness about the disease.

Dr. Rasha Kelej, the Chief Executive Officer of Merck Foundation, said the organization has provided 138 scholarships of Oncology training in many sub-specialties to doctors from 37 African countries.

"We are committed towards healthcare capacity advancement and patient care transformation and reshaping the landscape of public healthcare sector in 50 countries in Africa, Asia and beyond,” she said.

 “We are making history together in Africa, with our Ambassadors, First Ladies of Africa and our partners, Tata Hospital and Krishna University,” Dr. Kelej, also the Chairperson of Merck Foundation Africa Asia Luminary added.

More than 10,000 participants including healthcare providers, policymakers, researchers, academia and media representatives from 70 English, French, Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries participated in the hybrid event.

It featured five parallel scientific and social sessions geared at advancing healthcare capacity and awareness in 42 critical and underserved medical specialties.