Aisha Buhari champions ‘Merck More than a Mother’ campaign in Nigeria

Aisha Buhari, the wife of Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, is championing Merck More than a Mother campaign in Nigeria, an initiative to break the stigma around infertility and to empower women who suffer infertility.

Merck More than a Mother was first implemented in Kenya in 2015 followed by Uganda, Cote d’Ivoire, Central African Republic, and Nigeria in 2016.

The launch, which held in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of the country, Abuja is in partnership with Senate Commission on Health; Ministry of Health; Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, and Future Assured organization.

The wife of President Buhari who was present at the launch pledged her support and the support of Nigerian Governors’ wives in the implementation of Merck More than a Mother’s activities in Nigeria.

Aisha Alhassan, Nigeria’s Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, who was also present at the launch said “In Nigeria we have been advocating for the end of harmful traditional practices including the stigmatization of women which is prevalent all over the country”.

“Women have not been coming out openly because they are traumatized. With this campaign we will encourage them to speak out and we pledge our support and collaboration,” the Minister added.

Isaac Adewole, Nigeria’s Minister of Health, also present, emphasized government readiness to enact policies that will ensure the improvement of fertility healthcare in Nigeria.

“We are responsible for policy at the Ministry level and this is where we can make a difference in improving access to fertility care in Nigeria. We will work through training institutions we are responsible for to strengthen fertility management by making it a sub-specialty.

“We will also as a Ministry work with private sector, the Senate and the National Assembly to improve governance and quality of care to provide standards to protect infertile men and women seeking treatment,” the Health Minister stated.

Earlier, Merck Healthcare Chief Social Officer (CSO), Dr. Rasha Kelej has said “Merck More than a Mother campaign is a great initiative to break the stigma around infertility and to empower an unprivileged category of women in Africa, women who suffer infertility,” stressing that “Infertile women have been neglected, mistreated and discriminated because they cannot bear a child, yet 50% of infertility is due to male factors”.

“We can together improve access to education, information, awareness, health care and change of mind-set and culture to stop these women’s suffering” the CSO said.