Author: Emelia Naa Ayeley Aryee || Gender Advocate
First Ladies from Africa have put hands together seeking to end stigma and discrimination against couples who have no child of their own.
The First Ladies converged at the 9th Merck Foundation’s Africa Asia Luminary Conference held in Dubai recently.
In attendance were the CEO of Merck Foundation, Senator Dr. Rasha Kelej; the First Lady of Ghana, Rebecca Akuffo-Addo, the First Lady of Malawi, the First Lady of Botswana, and a host of others.
In an address, Merck Foundation CEO, Dr. Kelej, was full of praise for the First Ladies for their continuous support in ensuring that the stigma and discrimination against childless couples are broken.
To her, the level of commitment shown by the First Ladies confirms their willingness to ensure that couples, especially women who are yet to have their own children, are spared the stigma and discrimination that come with being labeled as infertile.
She also revealed that as part of its goal, Merck Foundation, under its flagship programme, ‘Merck More than A Mother’, has trained specialized doctors to deal with the issue of infertility of the African continent.
Dr. Kelej added that the foundation, through its scholarship programmes, has built the capacities of medical doctors across Africa in fertility care, diabetes, cardiovascular, endocrinology, women’s health, sexual and reproductive care, and respiratory medicines, among others.
She also disclosed that the foundation’s goal is to train more health professionals in the areas of Trauma and orthopedics, Ophthalmology, Urology, Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology, Mental Health, Orthopedic Trauma, Paediatric, Emergency Medicine, Dermatology, Neonatal Medicine, Pain Management, Psychiatry, as well as Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases.
She hoped that the joint efforts of Merck Foundation and African First Ladies will go a long way to rid Africa of the stigma and discrimination that come with infertility.
Taking her turn to speak, the First Lady of Ghana, Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo, described the stigma against infertile women as ‘gross injustice’.
She recounted as she witnessed firsthand how stigma and lack of support from the society traumatized women labeled as infertile by the society, stressing that it ought not to be so.
Mrs. Akufo-Addo commended Merck Foundation for its continuous campaign against this issue, adding that the intervention in Ghana has been immense.
She further charged her fellow First Ladies to continue to do more to ensure that stigma and discrimination against women labeled as infertile become a thing of the past.
