• Some first ladies with CEO of Merck foundation and other dignitaries

An organisation which aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people and advance their lives through sci­ence and technology, Merck Foundation, has successfully held its 9th Africa Asia Lumi­nary in Dubai from Tuesday, November 15 to Wednesday November 16.

The initiative which marks 10 years of Development Programmes and 5th anniver­sary of Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck Germany, had more than 6,000 participants from more than 70 countries.

Addressing the opening session, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Merck Founda­tion, Senator Dr Rasha Kelej, said it was a great honour to have the chairman of both the Executive Board of E. Merck KG and Merck Foundation Board of Trustees, Prof. Dr Frank Stabgenberg-Haverkamp to officially inaugurate the Luminary.

She acknowledged Prof. Dr Stabgan­berg-Haverkamp’s valuable guidance and support for Merck Foundation.

Senator Dr Kelej revealed that the Foun­dation had provided more than 1,470 schol­arships to young doctors from 50 countries in 32 critical and undeserved specialties such as diabetes, endocrinology, oncolo­gy, embryology, sexual and reproductive medicine among others with most of them becoming the first-ever specialists in their countries.

“We will celebrate together the 5th anniversary of Merck Foundation which was established in 2017 and the 10th anniversary of the programmes which started in 2012.

She said together with the First Ladies, they would share experiences and discuss the impact of their programmes to build healthcare and media capacity.

This she said aimed at raising awareness on sensitive and critical issues in addition to wide range of social issues like supporting girl education, ending child marriage, stop­ping GBV, breaking infertility stigma, ending FGM, women empowerment and diabetes.

Touching on the diabetes awareness song, she pleaded with the First Ladies and media to help promote it to get the message across to make an impact considering the increas­ing rate of diabetes in Ghana.

She further said the huge milestone wouldn’t have been achieved without the support of the first ladies, adding that healthcare is a major drive of the economy.

She thanked the first ladies for their com­mitment and support for a successful story over the years and expressed appreciation to the Merck Foundation for their unflinch­ing support and dedication.

Prof Dr Stabganberg-Haverkamp said after two difficult years, it felt great to be back physically.

According to him, it had been a wonderful journey of transforming lives since 2012, and expressed appreciation to each and everyone for immense contribution to the Merck Foundation story of raising awareness and building efficacy.

He acknowledged the effort of first ladies in raising awareness for the Merck More Than A Mother initiative.

Prof.Dr Stabganberg-Haverkamp con­gratulated efforts of the Merck Foundation alumni, adding that they are proud of their success stories of impacting lives in their countries after graduating from various sponsorship programmes.

He further noted that he is personally pleased with their stories, for it encourages his outfit to continuously sponsor health pro­fessionals to touch more lives and be part of Africa’s story.

The First Lady of Central African Republic, Bridgette Touadera, delivering the keynote address said she started her partnership with Merck Foundation in 2015, and it has since been an impactful journey.

She took the opportunity to congratulate her colleague first ladies for their enormous roles and pledged their support to Merck Foundation, adding that their partnership has kept grow­ing stronger every year.

Madame Bridgette Touadera expressed appreciation to the key roles doctors and medical practitioners play in every soci­ety and urged them to continue the hard work.

She added that her Foundation through the support of Merck has immensely supported the health­care sector to train more doctors and other practitioners.

This she said had hugely im­pacted lives of people in Central Africa Republic and other African countries.

She urged her colleague first ladies to continue on their quest to overcome stigma associated with infertility and empower women through ‘Educating Linda’ initiative to inspire young ladies.

After the inaugural session, there was panel discussion of health experts from all over the world.

It continued the next day, Wednesday, No­vember 16, with training sessions for health professionals and the media.

Since 2012 and the formation of Merck Foundation, Senator Dr Rasha Kelej has de­veloped many impactful programmes.

Programmes such as Merck Capacity Advancement Programmes, Merck Cancer Access, Merck More Than a Mother, Merck Foundation First Ladies Initiative (MFFLI), Education Linda Programme, Diabetes Blue Points Programme, and Merck STEM for Women and Youth have yielded positive results as well as changed lives.

These programmes are focused on build­ing healthcare capacity and transforming patient care landscape through providing scholarships of training in critical and un­deserved medical specialties in Africa and developing countries.

Senator Dr Kelej together with African First Ladies have been breaking the silence on a wide range of critical and sensitive social and health issues like Supporting Girl Education, Breaking Infertility Stigma, Stopping GBV and FGM, Ending Child Mar­riage and Empowering women at all levels; through many of her innovative and unique initiatives like; Creating more than 30 songs in English, French, Portuguese and other lo­cal languages to create awareness on health issues.

From Edem Mensah-Tsotorme, Dubai