Merck Foundation medical scholarships grow to 2270



BY PAUL TENTENA

Merck Foundation has provided over 2270 medical scholarships to qualified doctors across the African continent, with many going to 44 countries that are critically underserved by medical specialties.

According to Prof. Dr. Frank Stangenberg – Haverkamp, Chairman of Merck Foundation Board of Trustees, while speaking during the 7th Edition of Merck Foundation First Ladies Initiative - MFFLI Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates said since 2012 in the last 13 years,  Merck foundation, together with partners, has significantly strengthened healthcare capacity by providing over 2270 scholarships of one year and two year master degrees to further qualified doctors from 52 countries across 44 critical and underserved medical specialties.

“Specialties like oncology and cancer care, diabetes and Recology, cardiovascular fertility care and many, many other areas, most of these doctors are becoming the first specialist in their respective countries,” said Stangenberg – Haverkamp during the summit.

He added that during his visits to various countries, he had the privilege of meeting many of the doctors who benefited from their scholarship and are now smart foundation alumni.

I feel an immense sense of pride seeing how they are transforming healthcare in their communities, their commitment and compassion,” he said.



About 14 First Ladies from Africa attended the summit with the first lady of Ghana, the First Lady of Mozambique, the First Lady of Nigeria, and the first lady of Senegal attending the summit for the first time

Merck Foundation’s vision has always been simple yet deeply transformative that everyone should be able to live a healthy and happy life. This vision is driven by their mission to build and advance healthcare capacity, transform patient care landscape, break the stigma of infertility, empower women and learn and support girl education.

Stangenberg – Haverkamp said only one African country has 268 public medical schools in the entire continent, just one medical school in 11 countries, and no medical school at all in 11 countries more.

“As per World Health Organization (WHO) report of 2021, Africa has 24% of the world’s disease burden, whereas there are only 2.91 healthcare workers per 1000 patients.

This is compounded by the mild distribution of workforce among urban and rural areas and the public and the private sector. This gap in human resources has a profound impact on the health outcome,” he said.

Dr. Rasha Kelej the Chief Executive Officer of Merck Foundation, President of “More Than a Mother” and President of “Merck Foundation First Ladies Initiative” said before they started the scholarship programme, there was no single specialist in the specialties in the 44 critical countries of Africa and Asia.

“Of every doctor who graduate, when they go back to their countries, they see more than 1000 patients, treat more 1000 patients per month.

“Before, no one was able to see a doctor. For oncology, fertility specialists, diabetes specialists, hypertension specialists, and also sexual and reproductive medicine, internal medicine, respiratory medicine, acute medicine, critical care, pediatric emergency gastroenterology, rheumatology and clinical psychiatry, urology, ophthalmology, General Medicine, surgery and trauma,” said Kelej.

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