Malawi First Lady, H.E. Monica Chakwera speech at Merck Foundation Africa Asia Luminary-VCSummit2021

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"I am happy to share with you the speech of the First Lady of Malawi, H.E. Mrs. MONICA CHAKWERA & Ambassador of Merck Foundation More Than a Mother during the Merck Foundation Africa Asia Luminary held via videoconference.
She said, "I am very happy today to join my Sisters, Their Excellences’ First Ladies of Africa and all of you as the Guest of Honor of the Eighth Edition of Merck Foundation Africa Asia Luminary in partnership with GOVERNMENT of Zambia. And to celebrate together the 4th Anniversary of Merck Foundation, and our long term partner.
I am very happy to be a part of Merck Foundation First Ladies Initiative and participate for the 2nd time virtually during this global pandemic and to hear from all of you, my dear Sisters, about your experiences and programs to respond to Covid-19 in your countries.
Since I stated my office last year, we have worked closely with Merck Foundation CEO to define the right strategy to address such global crisis and to build healthcare capacity, empower infertile women and support girl’s education in Malawi as Merck More Than a Mother Ambassador
We have stated our important long-term partnership with Merck Foundation to capitalize on these valuable programs by scaling them up nationwide to contribute to the social and economic development of Malawi.
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.
Therefore, I am very happy to know that Merck Foundation have provided more than 16 local doctors with scholarship of online one-year diploma in many medical specialties: such as Diabetes, Cardiovascular, Endocrinology, Sexual and Reproductive Medicines, Respiratory Medicines and Acute Medicines, they are currently undergoing their studies. 6 doctors will be enrolled and together with our Ministry of Health, we are soon going to share a list of more doctors to be enrolled into different diplomas and master degree in new critical and underserved specialties in later stage, which are very critical to reshape and transform the landscape of Healthcare sector in Malawi and improve access to quality and equitable healthcare solutions.
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.
Moreover, I am happy to know that Merck Foundation is planning, as part of our partnership, to provide many doctors with one-year oncology fellowship in India to train young Doctors from Malawi in various specialties of Oncology, with the aim to establish a skilled team able to improve access to quality and equitable cancer care in the country. These candidates will be starting the program as soon as the coronavirus lockdown is over. We are planning to enroll more doctors in the next batches too.
It is important to mention that through “Merck More Than a Mother” campaign we are going to make history together through training the first fertility specialists and embryologists in Malawi to establish a strong platform to assist infertile couples in the country for the first time by local experts in their homeland. We have enrolled initially 3 doctors in the upcoming batches and 11 doctors in one-year online Diploma of Sexual and Reproductive Medicines from South Wales University, UK. I believe this will be an important part of our partnership to advance women health and reproductive care.

As Merck More Than a Mother Ambassador, I will work in collaboration with our Ministries to sensitize our communities and rural areas to better understand infertility hence to break the stigma around infertile women and to empower them through access to information, education, health and change of mindset.
I am looking forward to launch the new editions of these Awards in addition to Merck More Than a Mother Fashion, Film, Song Awards in Malawi, so we can encourage our young talents and youth to create and innovate message in their art and daily work to create a culture shift of breaking infertility stigma and support girl education.
This is a very important initiative to empower our girls in education.
I am very happy that we received the 30,000 copies of the three storybooks and distributed on school children in collaboration with Ministry of Education.
On behalf of People of Malawi, we welcome the long-term partnership with Merck Foundation and with all of you; Excellencies First Ladies of Africa to build health care capacity and establish a strong platform of specialized and well trained health experts to transform healthcare sector in Malawi and rest of Africa."

Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej
CEO of Merck Foundation
Chairperson of Merck Foundation Africa Asia Luminary