Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation and Prof. Dr. Frank Stangenberg-Haverkamp, Chairman of both Executive Board of E.Merck KG and Merck Foundation Board of Trustees with Merck Foundation Alumni of Kenya.
By IJEOMA UKAZU
To mark the World Hypertension Day 2022, Merck Foundation in partnership with African First Ladies and Ministries of Health has continued to provide 650 scholarships for doctors from 43 African, Asian and Latin American countries.
The sponsorship also includes a one-year Post-Graduate Diploma and two-year Master’s degree in both Preventive Cardiovascular Medicine, Endocrinology and Diabetes, and three months of Diabetes Master’s course.
Dr Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation emphasized, “At Merck Foundation, we mark ‘World Hypertension Day’ every day by providing more than 650 scholarships of Cardiovascular, Diabetes and endocrinology care speciality training to doctors from Africa, in partnership with African First Ladies and Ministries of Health, and to doctors from Asian and Latin American countries as well.
“I am very proud to say that we have so far provided these 650 scholarships for medical postgraduates from 43 countries.”
“Additionally, we enroll doctors for three-month Diabetes Master course in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, so as to advance their clinical knowledge in tackling these non-communicable conditions”, added Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej.
Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation; Prof. Dr. Frank Stangenberg-Haverkamp, Chairman of both Executive Board of E.Merck KG and Merck Foundation Board of Trustees and HON’BLE KAILASH KUMAR JAGUTPAL, Minister of Health of Mauritius with Merck Foundation Alumni of Mauritius
While lending his voice, Merck Foundation alumnus from Ghana, Dr. Francis Agyekum says, “Ghana is a developing country with an increasing burden of cardiovascular diseases. However, the country does not have the resources and manpower to manage the huge burden of non-communicable diseases.
“The best hope for tackling this increasing burden of CVD is through increased emphasis on prevention (both primary and secondary prevention). Unfortunately, there are not many cardiologists and preventive services in the country. This important scholarship provided to me and other Ghanian doctors by Merck Foundation has equipped us to begin filling this gap, prevention is better than cure.”
Merck Foundation has so far provided more than 650 scholarships to doctors for these scholarships from 43 countries including Bangladesh, Botswana, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, DRC, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Indonesia, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, UAE, Uganda, Vietnam, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.