Her Excellency Angeline Ndayishimiye, First Lady of Burundi, chaired, by videoconference, the Annual Summit of Burundi – MERCK Foundation 2021. The summit aims to assess the achievements and set the future prospects of the partnership of the MERCK Foundation and Burundi via the Bonne Action UMUGIRANEZA Foundation.

In her opening address, the First Lady of Burundi said she was grateful for the significant impact of the partnership with the MERCK Foundation in the transformation of patient care in terms of specialized training for doctors, training and mentoring for media partners to enhance their essential role in effective community awareness.

She also pointed out that the Merck Foundation and the Bonne Action UMUGIRANEZA Foundation have implemented joint plans to strengthen health capacities, raise awareness through media partners and social networks to empower girls through education and break stigma related to infertility and empower infertile women through access to information, education, and mindset change.

The First Lady of Burundi also said that through the campaign “Merck More Than a Mother”, a very important step will be made by training 10 first Burundi specialists in fertility and embryology. This will allow the establishment of a solid platform to help infertile couples in Burundi.

As Ambassador of the Merck More Than a Mother Foundation, the First Lady of Burundi promised to work in collaboration with the ministries to sensitize communities in rural areas to better understand the phenomenon of infertility.

She informed that it is within this framework that the Bonne Action UMUGIRANEZA Foundation organized on April 14, in Bujumbura, the awareness-raising workshop on the problem of infertility and the approaches to care, for senior government officials, parliamentarians, representatives of religious denominations and senior military and police officers.

Her Excellency Angeline Ndayishimiye called on the Burundian population to stop blaming women for infertility because they are subjected to physical and psychological violence, although 50% of infertility is due to men. The First Lady of Burundi called also on Burundians to encourage men to speak up and discuss their infertility issues openly and to recognize that fertility is a shared responsibility.

She finally invited all the media partners and the winners of the MERCK Foundation Awards to continue their awareness journey through the media, social networks which are very essential to create a culture change in order to break the stigma of infertility and raise awareness on the prevention of infertility.