Merck Foundation Community Awareness and Awards Program
Share this story on:
We strongly believe that Art & Media play a significant role in raising awareness about health and sensitive topics like infertility, hence will contribute significantly to break the stigma around infertile and childless women in Africa, if utilized properly.
Therefore, we launched new initiatives to sensitize local communities about this sensitive topic such as; starting
Merck Foundation Health Media Training
Merck Foundation Africa Media Recognition Awards “More Than a Mother”
Merck Foundation FASHION AWARDS “More Than a Mother”
Merck Foundation FILM AWARDS “More Than a Mother”
Merck Foundation SONG Awards “More Than a Mother”
We have also partnered with local artists to create songs in English, French and local language to sensitize communities to respect women whether they are mothers or not. More than 20 songs have been created. We have also created children's stories localized for each country to address this topic in order to develop strong family values of love and respect from a young age.
Merck Foundation Health Media Training and Merck Foundation Africa Media Recognition Awards “More Than a Mother”
Merck Foundation has been providing training to media representatives and student to benefit them in understanding the infertility issues in African communities and to learn the best media practices to cover such issues and raise awareness by following international standards of reporting and media ethics. More than 1400 media representatives from 20 countries have benefitted from this program, so far. Know more about the program.
Watch Video - Merck Foundation Health Media Training” in Guinea, 2019
Merck Foundation FASHION AWARDS “More Than a Mother"
Merck Foundation Fashion Awards "More Than a Mother" have been launched to involve local fashion industry with the aim to deliver strong and influential messages to empower infertile women and say ‘No to Infertility Stigma’ and to create meaningful fashion trend to educate their communities that ‘Fertility is a Shared Responsibility’.
The winners of Merck Foundation Fashion Awards "More Than a Mother" have been announced in Zambia and Ghana in 2019. Read More
Watch Video - Merck Foundation More than a Mother Fashion Awards 2019 Ghana
Merck Foundation FILM AWARDS “More Than a Mother”
Merck Foundation Film Awards "More Than a Mother" have been launched to involve the local film industry to remind our communities that Women are more than Just Mothers and Men are more than Just Fathers. Read More
Watch Video - Merck Foundation More Than a Mother 1st Film Award Winner Ghana - Team Her.She.Woman, 2019 Ghana
Merck Foundation SONGS AWARDS “More Than a Mother”
Developing Local SONGS and STORIES
- Merck Foundation works with local artists to create songs and video clips to address the cultural perception of infertility and how to change it. More than 20 songs have been created in English, French and local languages. Sierra Leone, Kenya, Zambia, Ghana, Burundi, Rwanda, Gambia, Malawi, Liberia
- Moreover, it is also an honor for the Merck Foundation to have the The President of Liberia, H.E. George Weah and Former First Lady of Republic of Burundi, H.E. Denise Nkurunziza do their own songs for our campaign. This shows their commitment towards our campaign.
- Children’s Storybooks launched in more than 18 countries to address this topic in order to develop strong family values of love and respect from a young age.
Find all the songs and stories here.
Awareness Material
The Community Awareness Program ensures easy access to knowledge about infertility, its causes and management with scientific, educational materials in a range of languages.
Merck Foundation More Than a Mother Infertility Awareness Leaflet
View English | French | Portuguese version
Merck Foundation More Than a Father Infertility Awareness Leaflet
View English | French | Portuguese version
Infertility Awareness - Managemnet and Prevention | Media Tool Kit
View English | French | Portuguese | Spanish version
Our Social Media reach
Merck Foundation runs a broad social media campaign under Merck More Than a Mother, for infertility prevention and management, to amplify the reach of the efforts.
More than 3 million followers on social media.
Join the conversation on our social media platforms below and let your voice be heard
