Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation with infertile women during her visit to The Gambia.
I want to wish everyone Happy International Women’s Day to all the women in the world and to the men who support and empower them.
We at Merck Foundation, together with First Ladies of Africa, mark Women’s Day every day through our “More Than a Mother” campaign, which is a strong and unique movement that aims to empower women living with infertility stigma through access to information, education, change of mindset, and economic empowerment. Merck Foundation “More Than a Mother” is a powerful campaign that defines interventions to build quality and equitable Reproductive and Fertility Care Capacity, Break Infertility Stigma and Raise Awareness about Infertility Prevention and Male Infertility.
I am happy that we at the Merck Foundation, are contributing to building and advancing fertility care capacity in Africa and Asia, to support childless women and couples. I am very proud to share that we have provided till today more than 545 scholarships of Embryology, Fertility and Reproductive care to young doctors from 39 different countries. Many of our Alumni are trained to be the first local experts in their countries, where they never used to have local embryologists or fertility specialists before our program, such as The Gambia, Burundi, Guinea, Chad, Niger, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Malawi, Congo and more.
Merck Foundation has also been empowering childless and infertile women through their “Empowering Berna” initiative under their “More Than a Mother” movement. This initiative helps women who cannot be treated for infertility anymore by helping them get trained to establish small businesses so that they can be independent and rebuild their lives. Through ‘Empowering Berna’, the lives of many infertile women have been transformed in many African countries like Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Niger, Malawi, and many more.
Merck Foundation in partnership with Africa’s First Ladies, has also launched ‘More Than a Mother’ Children’s storybook to emphasize strong family values of love and respect from a young age which will reflect on eliminating the stigma of infertility and the resulted domestic violence in the future. The storybooks have been localized for each country and in three languages, English, French and Portuguese to better connect with the young readers. The book will soon also be converted to an animation film.
Read the storybook here:
To address this important issue of breaking infertility stigma and also a wide range of other social issues, we annually launch Merck Foundation ‘More Than a Mother’ Awards in partnership with African First Ladies. I would also like to invite the African Community of Media, Fashion, Filmmaking, and Musicians, students, and potential talents in these fields to apply for the awards this year by sharing their creative work on submit@merck-foundation.com.
It’s all about giving every woman the respect and the help she deserves to lead a fulfilling life, with or without a child.
Once again, I wish you all a Happy Women’s Day.
Kind regards,
Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej,
CEO of Merck Foundation,
President of “More Than a Mother” Campaign.
