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I am happy to share with you the speech of the First Lady of Democratic Republic of Congo & Ambassador of Merck Foundation More Than a Mother during the Merck Foundation Africa Asia Luminary held via videoconference.
She said, "I am very happy to be a part of Merck Foundation First Ladies Initiative and to hear from all of you, my dear sisters, about your experiences and programs in your countries.
As I am a new member of this prestigious platform, this is my first appearance especially during these tough times, the global coronavirus pandemic.
We have to discuss and open a dialogue to define the right strategy to address such global crisis and benefit from each other’s experiences and success stories.
I am very proud to be appointed the Ambassador of Merck More Than a Mother, to empower infertile women through access to information, education, change of mindset and economic empowerment.
I am looking forward to starting our important long-term partnership with Merck Foundation and we are ready to capitalize on these valuable programs by scaling them up nationwide to contribute to the social and economic development of my Country. the launch of Merck foundation officially had to be postponed unfortunately due to Coronavirus lockdown, but we are looking forward to do it sometime next year hopefully when the situation has settled down.
Specially during the COVID-19 global crisis and lockdown, we are interested more than ever in building healthcare capacity and training our local doctors who are our first line defense and the heroes of our coronavirus battle.
I am very happy to know that Merck Foundation that mainly focus on building healthcare capacity and providing training to our doctors and nurses.
Through our long-term partnership with Merck Foundation, we are looking forward to benefit hundreds of our doctors across the country, to be able to provide better care to our patients and our communities.
I am happy to inform you, we enrolled 32 Doctors for the Master Course in Diabetes Management in French accredited by Diabetes UK. Doctors are from each province in DRC. 19 doctors have graduated already, with the aim that after completion, these Doctors should be able to establish a diabetes clinic in his/her Health Centre or Hospital with the aim to help prevent and manage the disease in their respective communities. This is will transform Diabetes care in My country.

As part of my role as Ambassador of “Merck more than a Mother”, we will work with Ministry of Health to recommend more candidates for Fertility training and Embryology training programs in other sub-specialties.
Till today, Merck Foundation have trained 5 local Fertility specialists and Embryologists to be the first fertility care in DR Congo and this will help infertile couple to find the care they need in their homeland and by local experts. 2 doctors joined this year the training to be in total 7 skilled and trained fertility specialists and embryologists that will add huge value to our society.
Together with Merck Foundation, we started to 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.
The Few initiatives will include the “Merck More than a Mother‟ Media Recognition Award and Media Health Training. We have also announced the call for application for the “Merck More than a Mother‟ Media Recognition Award.
To demonstrate our response to the coronavirus outbreak, I’d like to thank Merck Foundation for the donation to support the livelihood of women and families of casual and daily workers who are most affected by the Coronavirus (COVID -19) lockdown.
We have announced the call for applications for their ‘Stay at Home” Media Recognition Awards in DRC. The theme of the awards is ‘Raising Awareness on how to Stay Safe and keep Physically and Mentally. 10 winners were announced and celebrated for both awards, this will encourage them to continue their efforts to create a culture shift to break infertility stigma and support girls education.
I am looking forward to launch the new editions of the two awards, “Mask Up with Care “ and Merck More Than a Mother Media Recognition Awards, Film, Song, and Fashion Awards.
We have released a children storybook “Make The Right Choice”, to raise awareness about coronavirus amongst Children and youth.
We have started supporting 20 girl students as part of Merck Foundation – ‘Educating Katty’ which aims to empower girls through education in DRC. We are closely working with your team on this new program with the aim to empower girls through education. We are very happy to receive 30,000 copied of the three children's storybooks to raise awareness about girls' education and breaking the infertility stigma."
Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej
CEO of Merck Foundation
Chairperson of Merck Foundation Africa Asia Luminary

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