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Roselyne SachitiRoselyne Sachiti Features, Health and Society Editor

• Merck Foundation marks World Cancer Day together with Africa First Ladies and Ministries of Health through building cancer care and increase the limited number of oncologists in their countries.

• To train the first African oncologists and cancer care teams.

• “Merck Foundation is going to provide the valuable specialty oncology training to young Zimbabwean doctors. We are very excited about it as it will empower healthcare professionals in our country with advanced training and medical expertise in overall oncology care. This will help the people of our country to fight this deadly disease”- First Lady Amai Auxillia Mnangagwa.

As the world commemorates World Cancer Day today, Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany, in partnership with African First Ladies and ministries of health announced it is building cancer care capacity to increase the number of oncologists across the continent.

In a statement to mark ‘World Cancer Day 2021’ Merck Foundation chief executive officer, Senator Rasha Kelej said this is being done through the Cancer Access Program. World Cancer Day is marked every February 4, and this year’s theme is ‘I am and I will’.Dr Kelej said her organisation has been providing the best in class multidisciplinary oncology and cancer care training to young doctors from all over Africa.

She said: “We at Merck Foundation strive to make the African healthcare professionals highly competent and fully independent by providing the best in class multidisciplinary oncology and cancer care training to young doctors from all over Africa.

I am proud of our success to reshape and advance the public cancer care sector and to increase the limited number of oncologists by more than 70 new oncologists to be the first in 24 countries.”

Dr Kelej added that she was happy to have formed multidisciplinary oncology care teams in many countries consisting of medical, surgery, pediatrics, gynecology, radiation oncologists, nursing, pathologist and radiology technician.

“We are definitely making history in Africa through training the first oncologists and first cancer care teams in many countries such as; The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Liberia, Guinea Conakry, Central African Republic, Chad, and Niger. Our key objective is to provide quality and equitable care to patients who never had anyone to care for them before,” she said.

First Lady Amai Auxillia Mnangagwa who is also Zimbabwe’s Health Ambassador emphasised in the same statement: “Merck Foundation is going to provide the valuable specialty oncology training to young Zimbabwean doctors.

We are very excited about it as it will empower healthcare professionals in our country with advanced training and medical expertise in overall oncology care.

This will help the people of our country to fight this deadly disease.”

The First Lady of Burundi Angeline Ndayishimiye also expressed: “I am very happy that as a part of our partnership, Merck Foundation is providing specialty training to the first-ever oncologist from Burundi.

We will be enrolling more doctors in the upcoming batches in various specialties of Oncology, with the aim to establish a skilled team, able to improve access to quality and equitable cancer care in the country.

I appreciate the unique efforts of Merck Foundation in this regard, this is the first time we receive this kind of support which help us to have our own specialists.”

Launched in 2016, the Merck Cancer Access Program provides One-, two- and three-years fellowship, master degree, and Diploma programs for African doctors in India, Egypt, Kenya, and Malaysia.

Merck Foundation also recently introduced  two years online PG Diploma in Cancer and Clinical Oncology from the UK.

“We are committed to lead Africa to a better future through transforming the landscape of Cancer care in the continent. We will soon scale up and strengthen our efforts and activities in more countries across Africa,” added Dr Kelej.

Merck Foundation through its Merck Cancer Access Program has till date trained more than 70 Oncologists from 24 countries (in addition to 10 doctors undergoing the training) which are: Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, DRC, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinee, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.