Winners have emerged at the “Merck Foundation More Than a Mother” Africa Media Recognition Awards 2020 to break infertility stigma.
Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany announced the winners of ‘Merck Foundation More Than a Mother’ Africa Media Recognition Awards 2020.
Senator Dr. RashaKelej, CEO of Merck Foundation, President ‘Merck More Than a Mother and African Woman of the Year 2020 celebrated the winners saying:
“Big congratulations to all the winners of ‘Merck Foundation More Than a Mother’ Africa Media Recognition Awards 2020. First, I’d like to thank my dear sisters, First ladies of Africa for their support as Ambassadors to make this award a great success. I am very proud to recognize and appreciate professional journalists who became the voice of the voiceless and the storytellers of infertile women and break the stigma around them and also raised awareness about male infertility.
As you all know I strongly believe in the critical role that media and art play to create a culture shift and raise awareness about health, cultural and sensitive issues such as infertility stigma. I welcome all the winners to be member in our Merck Foundation Alumni to work closely with us to empower women and girls at all levels.”
Merck Foundation received a great response from African journalists in the form of several excellent entries. The ‘Merck Foundation More Than A Mother’ Awards Committee decided to create three Groups of Awards from English speaking countries. Hence, the six groups are: 1) Southern African Countries, 2) East African Countries, 3) West African Countries, 4) African French Speaking Countries, 5) Ghana, and 6) Zambia.
Merck Foundation did not receive any entries from Portuguese speaking countries this year for this specific award.
The ‘Merck Foundation More Than A Mother’ Awards Committee further introduced a second and a third position and selected more than one winner in some categories. This was due to the high quality of work received and to encourage more talented and passionate media representatives across all media formats to reach their potential and be a beneficial instrument to address health, cultural and sensitive issues in the country.
Senator Dr. RashaKelej, Member of the Egyptian Senate (2020- 2025), Most Influential African (2019, 2020) and African Woman of the Year 2020 added:
“I am happy to announce that, encouraged by the valuable contribution from the winners, Merck Foundation is additionally rewarding the winners by providing them with one year access to an online educational training program called ‘MasterClass’. The MasterClass is an immersive online experience and self-paced learning course in English that can be accessed anywhere with the Internet.
I encourage the winners to be the ‘Merck Foundation More Than A Mother Advocate’ to further raise awareness about infertility and eliminate the stigma around it. I also welcome them as valuable members of ‘Merck Foundation Alumni’.”
Winners Of “Merck Foundation More Than a Mother” Africa Media Recognition Awards 2020 [Nigeria]
Winners from West African Countries
- PRINT CATEGORY WINNERS:
Chioma Obinna, Vanguard Media Limited, NIGERIA - ONLINE CATEGORY WINNERS:
First Position:
Martins Ifijeh, ThisDay Newspapers, NIGERIA
Second Position:
Never G Lomo, New Public Trust, LIBERIA
Chinedu Asadu, Cable Newspaper Limited, NIGERIA - RADIO CATEGORY
Abubakar Sulaiman, Sawaba FM 104.9 Hadejia, NIGERIA
About ‘Merck More Than a Mother’ campaign
“Merck More Than a Mother” is a strong movement that aims to empower infertile women through access to information, education and change of mind-sets. This powerful campaign supports governments in defining policies to enhance access to regulated, safe, effective and equitable fertility care solutions. It defines interventions to break the stigma around infertile women and raises awareness about infertility prevention, management and male infertility.
In partnership with African First Ladies, Ministries of Health, Information, Education & Gender, academia, policymakers, International fertility societies, media and art, the initiative also provides training for fertility specialists and embryologists to build and advance fertility care capacity in Africa and developing countries.
