Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany, conducted its first video conference summit of Merck Foundation First Ladies Initiative on 31 August 2020 to define and follow up on different joint programmes that aims to advance public healthcare sector capacity and strengthen the response to COVID 19 in their countries.
The MFFLI VC Summit 2020 was hosted by Prof. Frank Stangenberg Haverkamp, Chairman of the Executive Board of E. Merck KG and the Chairman of Merck Foundation Board of Trustees and Dr. Rasha Kelej, the Chief Executive Officer of Merck Foundation and President, Merck More Than a Mother.
It was attended by 13 African first ladies, who are ambassadors of Merck More Than a Mother.
Haverkamp said, “The 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’s strategy since 2012, even before the pandemic started.”
Also commenting on the summit, Kelej explained, “I am very proud of our valuable partnership with the African first ladies as ‘Merck more than a Mother Ambassadors.’ We have always believed in the importance of building healthcare capacity through providing training to healthcare providers in many medical specialties. This has been our strategy since we started in 2012 in partnership with African first ladies and ministries of health, much before the pandemic started.
“As a response to COVID-19 pandemic, we adopted online medical education strategy through providing more than 350 African doctors with one-year online diploma and two-year online master degree in many specialties such as: respiratory medicines and acute medicines, diabetes, cardiology, endocrinology, and sexual and reproductive medicines.”
He added, “This is in addition to more than 500 African and Asian doctors who benefited from our original clinical training programmes in diabetes and cardiovascular, oncology, fertility specialists, and embryology in India, Egypt, Kenya and Malaysia which will resume after the lockdown ends.”
According to Merck, the MFFLI 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.
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.
For example, the First Lady of Zimbabwe and Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother stated, “I am very happy to see Merck Foundation’s 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.”
