<\/p>\n
Merck Foundation (http:\/\/www.Merck-Foundation.com<\/a>)<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0marks World ART (Assisted Reproductive Technology) Day 2023 through providing 490 scholarships of Embryology, Fertility and Reproductive care in 39 countries in Africa and Asia; Merck Foundation makes history by training the first local Embryologists and Reproductive & Fertility Experts in many countries such as The Gambia, Liberia,\u00a0 Burundi, Guinea, Chad, Niger, Sierra Leone, Malawi, and Congo. Moreover, supported training for the staff of First Public IVF Centers in Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Niger, Bangladesh, and Myanmar.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Merck Foundation<\/strong>, the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany, marks \u2018World ART (Assisted Reproductive Technology) Day 2023\u2019<\/strong> together with African First Ladies, who are also the Ambassadors of \u201cMerck Foundation More Than a Mother\u201d Campaign<\/strong>, by building and advancing fertility care capacity in Africa and Asia.<\/p>\n Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation and President of \u201cMore Than \u00a0a Mother\u201d<\/strong> emphasized, “We at Merck Foundation strongly believe in the critical role of Embryologists and Fertility & Reproductive Care Specialists to empower infertile women through improving their access to information, change of mindset and quality & equitable fertility care across Africa & Asia as part of our \u201cMore than a Mother\u201d campaign.<\/p>\n As a part of the campaign, we marked World ART Day<\/strong> through providing more than 490 scholarships<\/strong> to young doctors from 39 countries <\/strong>to be the local Embryologists, Fertility & Reproductive care experts in their countries. Moreover, many of our Alumni were trained to be the first local experts in their countries where they never had even a single local embryologist or fertility specialist before our program such as; The Gambia, Burundi, Guinea, Chad, Niger, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Malawi, Congo , Mozambique and more.<\/p>\n Together with Merck Foundation Alumni, and our partners, we are making history and reshaping the landscape of fertility & Reproductive\u00a0care across Africa and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n Merck Foundation \u201cMore Than a Mother\u201d <\/strong>is a strong movement that aims to empower women living with Infertility through access to information, education, change of mindset, and economic empowerment. This powerful campaign defines interventions to build quality and equitable Reproductive and Fertility Care Capacity, Break Infertility Stigma and Raise Awareness about Infertility Prevention and Male Infertility.<\/p>\n \u201cTo give an overview, out of our total 1580 scholarships<\/strong>, we have provided more than\u00a0215\u00a0Scholarships<\/strong> for clinical and practical training to Fertility Specialists and Embryologists, and more than\u00a0275 Scholarships<\/strong> for PG Diploma and Master Degree in Sexual and Reproductive Medicine, Clinical Psychiatry, Women’s Health, Biotechnology of Human Assisted Reproduction & Embryology, Urology, Laparoscopic Surgical skills to doctors from 39\u00a0countries across Africa and Asia. We are proud of this achievement\u201d, added Dr. Rasha Kelej.<\/strong><\/p>\n Moreover, Merck Foundation has trained more than 2500 media representatives from more than 35 countries to raise community awareness and break the stigma around infertility and infertile and childless women.<\/p>\n Merck Foundation has also been empowering childless and infertile women through their \u201cEmpowering Berna\u201d initiative<\/strong> under their \u201cMore Than a Mother\u201d<\/strong> movement. This initiative helps women who cannot be treated for infertility anymore by helping them to get trained to establish small businesses so that they can be independent and rebuild their lives. Through \u2018Empowering Berna\u2019, 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.<\/p>\n Merck Foundation in partnership with African First Ladies<\/strong> has also launched David\u2019s Story<\/strong>, a children\u2019s 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 have a better connect with the young readers. Read David\u2019s Story here: https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/3Zmgd55<\/a><\/p>\n Merck Foundation\u2019s pan African TV program<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cOur Africa\u201d,<\/strong> that is\u00a0conceptualized, produced, directed, and co-hosted by Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation<\/strong> and features African Fashion Designers, Singers, and prominent experts\u00a0from various domains with the aim to raise awareness and create a culture shift across Africa, has many episodes dedicated to raise awareness about infertility and breaking infertility stigma.<\/p>\n Watch the episodes here:<\/p>\n Episode 3: <\/strong>https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/44XyhVr<\/a><\/p>\n Episode 5: <\/strong>https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/471E0LT<\/a><\/p>\n Episode 10: <\/strong>https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/3rD5UgV<\/a><\/p>\n Merck Foundation has also released about 30 songs, many of these songs have been created with the aim to break the infertility stigma, as a part of their \u201cMore Than a Mother\u201d campaign. Listen to some of the songs here:<\/p>\n Listen to all \u201cMore than a Mother\u201d songs here: https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/3KRLMiD<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cTo address this important issue of breaking infertility stigma and also a wide range of other social issues, we annually launch Merck Foundation \u2018More Than a Mother\u2019 Awards in partnership with African First Ladies. I would also like to invite the African Community of Media, Fashion, Film making, and Musicians, students, and potential talents in these fields to apply for the awards this year, to create a culture shift and break the silence about one or more of the following topics: Breaking Infertility Stigma, Supporting Girl Education, Women Empowerment, Ending Child Marriage, Ending FGM, and\/ or Stopping GBV at all levels. I am looking forward to receiving their creative work on submit@merck-foundation.com<\/strong><\/a>\u201d, concluded Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej.<\/strong><\/p>\n \n Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Merck Foundation.<\/i><\/p>\n More images here:\u00a0https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/43M3WYV<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Media contact:<\/strong> Join the conversation on our social media platforms below and let your voice be heard: About Merck Foundation:<\/strong> Source<\/a> Merck Foundation (http:\/\/www.Merck-Foundation.com)\u00a0marks World ART (Assisted Reproductive Technology) Day 2023 through providing 490 scholarships of Embryology, Fertility and Reproductive care in 39 countries in Africa and Asia; Merck Foundation makes history by training the first local Embryologists and Reproductive & Fertility Experts in many countries such as The Gambia, Liberia,\u00a0 Burundi, Guinea, Chad, Niger, Sierra […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":153126,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/thumb\/bf4b556ec14d910\/600\/418","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[278],"tags":[258,256,4380,24143,260,31286,4696,7165,281,9186,4691,450,279,280,35596,35597,5265,13524,9346,5956,257,17105,21005,13604,254,26311,5734,5093],"class_list":["post-153125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dr-congo","tag-africa","tag-africa-news","tag-african","tag-amp","tag-asia","tag-assisted","tag-central-africa","tag-day","tag-democratic-republic-of-congo","tag-develop","tag-dr-congo","tag-dr-congo-news","tag-drc","tag-drc-news","tag-embryologists","tag-fertility","tag-foundation","tag-ladies","tag-mark","tag-merck","tag-news","tag-providing","tag-reproductive","tag-scholarships","tag-south-africa-today","tag-specialists","tag-technology","tag-world"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/thumb\/bf4b556ec14d910\/600\/418","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/africa-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\nMehak Handa\u00a0
\nCommunity Awareness Program Manager\u00a0
\n+91\u00a09310087613\/ +91 9319606669\u00a0\u00a0
\nmehak.handa@external.merckgroup.com<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nFacebook:\u00a0https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/3Ykd3hH<\/a>
\nTwitter:\u00a0https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/3Yo3y11<\/a>
\nYouTube:\u00a0https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/3CNFGLa<\/a>
\nInstagram:\u00a0https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/3lsqM7q<\/a>
\nFlickr:\u00a0https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/3JT8BSC<\/a>
\nWebsite:\u00a0Merck-Foundation.com<\/a>
\nDownload the Merck Foundation App:\u00a0https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/3xeJMsI<\/a><\/p>\n
\nThe Merck Foundation, established in 2017, is the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany, aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people and advance their lives through science and technology. Our efforts are primarily focused on improving access to quality & equitable healthcare solutions in underserved communities, building healthcare and scientific research capacity and empowering people in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) with a special focus on women and youth. All Merck Foundation press releases are distributed by e-mail at the same time they become available on the Merck Foundation Website.\u00a0Please visit\u00a0www.Merck-Foundation.com<\/a>\u00a0to read more.\u00a0Follow the social media of Merck Foundation:\u00a0Facebook (https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/3Ykd3hH<\/a>), Twitter (https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/3Yo3y11<\/a>), Instagram (https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/3lsqM7q<\/a>), YouTube (https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/3CNFGLa<\/a>), and Flickr (https:\/\/apo-opa.info\/3JT8BSC<\/a>).<\/p>\n
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South Africa Today Africa \u2013 Central Africa Democratic Republic of Congo<\/a> News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"