{"id":3747,"date":"2020-09-07T19:23:27","date_gmt":"2020-09-07T15:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rasha-kelej.com\/?p=3747"},"modified":"2020-09-07T19:23:28","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T15:23:28","slug":"merck-foundation-and-13-african-first-ladies-meet-to-strengthen-healthcare-to-control-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rasha-kelej.com\/?p=3747","title":{"rendered":"Merck Foundation and 13 African First Ladies meet to Strengthen Healthcare to control COVID 19"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany conducted their first Video Conference Summit of&nbsp;Merck Foundation First Ladies Initiative (MFFLI)&nbsp;on 31st August 2020 to define and follow up on different joint programs that aims to advance public healthcare sector capacity and strengthen the response to COVID 19 in their countries.<br><br>The&nbsp;MFFLI VC Summit 2020&nbsp;was hosted by&nbsp;Prof. Dr. Frank Stangenberg Haverkamp,&nbsp;Chairman of the Executive Board of E. Merck KG and the Chairman of Merck Foundation Board of Trustees and Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation and President, Merck More Than a Mother and One of 100 Most Influential African (2019 &amp; 2020) and attended by 13 African First Ladies, who are Ambassadors of Merck More than a Mother;&nbsp;H.E. AUXILLIA MNANGAGWA, The First Lady of Zimbabwe; H.E. ESTHER LUNGU, The First Lady of Zambia; H.E. FATIMA MAADA BIO, The First Lady of Sierra Leone; H.E. A\u00cfSSATA ISSOUFOU MAHAMADOU, The First Lady of Niger; H.E. MONICA GEINGOS, The First Lady of Namibia; H.E. ISAURA FERR\u00c3O NYUSI, The First Lady of Mozambique; H.E. MONICA CHAKWERA, The First Lady of Malawi; H.E. REBECCA AKUFO-ADDO, The First Lady of Ghana; H. E. FATOUMATTA BAHBARROW, The First Lady of The Gambia; H.E. BRIGITTE TOUADERA, The First Lady of Central African Republic; H.E. ANGELINE NDAYISHIMIYE, The First Lady of Burundi; H.E. NEO JANE MASISI, The First Lady of Botswana; H.E. ANA DIAS LOUREN\u00c7O, The First Lady of Angola.<br><br><strong>Prof. Dr. Frank Stangenberg Haverkamp, Chairman of the Executive Board of E. Merck KG and the Chairman of Merck Foundation Board of Trustees<\/strong>&nbsp;emphasized, \u201cThe effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been greater than many expected across the globe. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of investing in improving access to equitable and quality healthcare which is Merck Foundation\u2019s strategy since 2012, even before the pandemic started.\u201d<\/p><p>The MFFLI VC Summit, special edition aims to share experiences, discuss challenges, and define solutions to further strengthen healthcare capacity to better respond to this global pandemic in Africa.<br><br>The African First Ladies shared the experiences of working closely with Merck Foundation in their respective countries with special focus on the programs to build healthcare capacity and the response to COVID -19.<br><br><strong>H.E. AUXILLIA MNANGAGWA, The First Lady of Zimbabwe &amp; Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother<\/strong>&nbsp;emphasized, \u201cI am very happy to see Merck Foundation\u2019s strong commitment to advance the public healthcare sector across Africa. This is very critical to Zimbabwe, in the light of current pressure on our healthcare sector. More than 117 local doctors are enrolled in these training programs which will transform our healthcare sector.\u201d<br><br><strong>H.E. ESTHER LUNGU, First Lady of Zambia &amp; Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother&nbsp;<\/strong>emphasized, \u201cWe are proud of our partnership with Merck Foundation, which started in 2019. In a very short period, we have been able to reshape the healthcare landscape of Zambia by providing our doctors and nurses with specialty training in the fields of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiology, Endocrinology, Respiratory, Acute medicines, Sexual and Reproductive medicines, Fertility and Embryology. All of these fields are very critical and were lacking in our country. This will contribute to our battle against coronavirus and other diseases.\u201d<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/rasha-kelej.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/1024x576_4675gb.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3745\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rasha-kelej.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/1024x576_4675gb.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/rasha-kelej.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/1024x576_4675gb-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rasha-kelej.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/1024x576_4675gb-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/rasha-kelej.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/1024x576_4675gb-600x338.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><p><strong>H.E. FATIMA MAADA BIO, The First Lady of Sierra Leone &amp; Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother<\/strong>&nbsp;expressed, \u201cI am extremely elated with our partnership with Merck Foundation, as together, we are making history in Sierra Leone by providing training for the First Oncologists in the country to establish the first skilled cancer care team. Also, our doctors are being trained in the fields of diabetes and fertility care. We will scale up the program to more fields together with Merck Foundation very soon.\u201d<br>&nbsp;<br><strong>H.E. A\u00cfSSATA ISSOUFOU MAHAMADOU, The First Lady of Niger &amp; Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother<\/strong>&nbsp;emphasized, \u201cI am happy to be part of this prestigious platform. Since the Merck Foundation launch in 2017, together we have made a significant impact on our healthcare sector, through establishing a strong platform of Health experts in very critical fields such as; Diabetes, Oncology and Fertility care in Niger.\u201d<br>&nbsp;<br><strong>H.E. MONICA GEINGOS, The First Lady of Namibia &amp; Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother<\/strong>&nbsp;said, \u201cI am very happy to see that Merck Foundation is strongly committed to advancing the public healthcare sector across Africa. This is very critical to our countries in light of the current medical and public concerns. This is very important for Namibia as we have a very limited number of local specialists in the public sector, we are very happy to enroll 21 Namibian doctors in online diplomas in many fields, including 8 in sexual and reproductive medicines which is very important for women health.\u201d<br>&nbsp;<br><strong>H.E. Dr. ISAURA FERR\u00c3O NYUSI, The First Lady of Mozambique &amp; Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother<\/strong>&nbsp;explained, \u201cTogether with Merck Foundation, I am fully committed to will work closely to introduce innovative ideas that will engage different sectors to create a culture shift with the aim to break the stigma of infertility and make a great impact in a short time.\u201d<br>&nbsp;<br><strong>H.E. MONICA CHAKWERA, The First Lady of Malawi &amp; Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother<\/strong>&nbsp;said, \u201cI am looking forward to starting our important long term partnership with Merck Foundation. I am willing to capitalize on the valuable programs of Merck Foundation, by scaling them up nationwide to contribute to the social and economic development of Malawi.\u201d<br>&nbsp;<br><strong>H.E. REBECCA AKUFO-ADDO, The First Lady of Ghana &amp; Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother<\/strong>&nbsp;elaborated, \u201cWe launched the innovative programs of Merck Foundation at the beginning of 2019, to build healthcare capacity and break the infertility stigma. To share with you that since then and in a very short time we have been able to provide and enroll many of our healthcare providers with specialty training in the fields of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiology, Endocrinology, Respiratory, Acute medicines, Sexual and Reproductive medicines, Fertility specialists and Embryology training.\u201d<br>&nbsp;<br><strong>H.E. FATOUMATTA BAHBARROW, The First Lady of The Gambia &amp; Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother<\/strong>&nbsp;said, \u201cI am delighted to share the magnificent outcomes of my long term partnership with Merck Foundation. Together we have been able to empower infertile women through access to information, education, health, and change of mindset. Also, we have enrolled 25 Gambian doctors in One-year online diploma and one-year master degree in many medical specialties.\u201d<br>&nbsp;<br><strong>H.E. BRIGITTE TOUADERA, The First Lady of Central African Republic &amp; Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother<\/strong>&nbsp;emphasized, \u201cI am very proud to work closely with Merck Foundation to advance healthcare sector and empower infertile women in my country. We also initiated in my country, an important project \u201cEmpowering Berna\u201c where we established small businesses for infertile women and train them to run their businesses so they can have income and become independent. Their lives have been transformed since then.\u201d<br>&nbsp;<br><strong>H.E. ANGELINE NDAYISHIMIYE, The First Lady of Burundi &amp; Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother<\/strong>&nbsp;expressed, \u201cI am very happy to be appointed the Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother last week. I am excited about the work that has been done in my country so far and looking forward to taking this partnership to new heights.\u201d<br>&nbsp;<br><strong>H.E. NEO JANE MASISI The First Lady of Botswana &amp; Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother<\/strong>&nbsp;highlighted, \u201cMerck Foundation\u2019s strategy of building healthcare capacity is more relevant now than ever. More than 34 doctors were enrolled to different specialties, I will closely work with Merck Foundation and our Ministry of Health to ensure the success of this program to be able to improve our people\u2019s health and wellbeing.\u201d<br>&nbsp;<br><strong>H.E. ANA DIAS LOUREN\u00c7O, The First Lady of Angola<\/strong>&nbsp;expressed, \u201cI am very proud and happy to be a part of MFFLI VC Summit and look forward to a long-term partnership with Merck Foundation. We will closely work together on all their initiatives to build healthcare capacity and empower girls in education.\u201d<br>&nbsp;<\/p><p><strong>About Merck Foundation First Ladies Initiative Summit \u2013 MFFLI<\/strong><br><br>MFFLI is a Merck Foundation platform of African First Ladies and \u201cMerck More Than a Mother\u201d Ambassadors established with the aim to discuss challenges, define solutions, measure impact and share experience to ensure continuous improvement and exchange variable aspects of different cultures in order to localize and\/or standardize specific messages that can raise awareness and create a culture shift across Africa with regards to the below objectives:<\/p><p>\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Breaking the Stigma around infertile couples in general and infertile women in particular.<br>\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Empowering Girls and Women in Education in general and in STEM in particular.<br>\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Improving access to quality &amp; equitable healthcare solutions.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany conducted their first Video Conference Summit of&nbsp;Merck Foundation First Ladies Initiative (MFFLI)&nbsp;on 31st August 2020 to define and follow up on different joint programs that aims to advance public healthcare sector capacity and strengthen the response to COVID 19 in their countries. The&nbsp;MFFLI VC Summit 2020&nbsp;was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Merck Foundation and 13 African First Ladies meet to Strengthen Healthcare to control COVID 19 | Rasha Kelej<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/rasha-kelej.com\/?p=3747\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Merck Foundation and 13 African First Ladies meet to Strengthen Healthcare to control COVID 19 | Rasha Kelej\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany conducted their first Video Conference Summit of&nbsp;Merck Foundation First Ladies Initiative (MFFLI)&nbsp;on 31st August 2020 to define and follow up on different joint programs that aims to advance public healthcare sector capacity and strengthen the response to COVID 19 in their countries. 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