Kelej, First Lady meet 100 infertile women

Kelej

Merck Foundation CEO, Dr. Rasha Kelej, together with H.E. Madam Brigitte Touadera, The First Lady of Central African Republic – C.A.R. & Merck more than a Mother Ambassador, conducted a special meeting with more than 100 infertile women who have been enrolled in Empowering Berna to establish small businesses for them.

Empowering Berna is special project part of Merck more than a Mother campaign initiated by Merck Foundation for underprivileged infertile women who can no longer be treated, to establish small businesses and train them to be able to generate steady monthly income.

Praising it, First Lady Touadera said, “It is great initiative by Merck Foundation to empower our women by improving their access to information, knowledge and through capacity building to start their own business. Thus, they will be independent and lead a respectable life. This way they can comprehend their rights, roles and responsibilities and be more than mothers.”

Kelej emphasized that “it’s very important to empower infertile women by providing treatment so they can bear children as part of their human rights. But for those who cannot be treated anymore, our initiative, Empowering Berna, will help to train them to establish their own small business so that they can be independent and re-build their own lives. We truly believe that a woman is a lot more than just a mother. We should also encourage men to speak up about their infertility and support their wives. We will also help young couple to find proper access to fertility care by providing training to fertility specialists as we did for oncologists and diabetes specialists. Our vision is to establish a strong platform of health specialists in the country and the rest of Africa.”

Merck Foundation also underscored its commitment to build healthcare capacity in the country. During the meeting, many new programs were finalized and launched in partnership with the Ministry of Health of C.A.R.