Senator, 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 specialty 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.

Dr. Francis Agyekum, Merck Foundation alumnus from Ghana 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.