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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