{"id":734235,"date":"2019-10-30T12:52:58","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T12:52:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2019\/10\/30\/dont-worry-barren-women\/"},"modified":"2019-10-30T12:52:58","modified_gmt":"2019-10-30T12:52:58","slug":"dont-worry-barren-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/10\/30\/dont-worry-barren-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Worry Barren Women &#8211;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>President Akufo-Addo (3rd right) in a handshake with Prof. Dr. Stangenberg-Haverkamp (3rd left), Board Chair of <\/strong><strong>MERCK Foundation, Rebecca Akufo-Addo (2nd right) and Dr. Rasha Kelej (right). Picture by Gifty Ama Lawson.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has made a passionate appeal for an end to the scourge of stigmatisation against persons with fertility problems, especially women in Africa.<\/p>\n<p>He said couples, especially women who cannot give birth, should not be discriminated against in any form as it usually pertains largely in Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing the 6th Annual Conference of the Merck Foundation Africa Asia Luminary in Accra yesterday under the theme: \u2018Together for a Better Future\u2019, the President said, \u201cThe onus is on each and every one of us to work towards finding solutions to addressing infertility and ending stigmatisation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-250808\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/25.-President-Nana-Addo-Dankwa-Akufo-Addo-delivering-the-keynote-address-at-the-conference-in-Accra.-1-300x213.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"363\" height=\"258\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>He said, \u201cWe must as a matter of necessity take urgent steps to incorporate issues regarding infertility prevention and treatment and the development of maternal and reproductive health care policies in our respective countries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are told by the World Health Organization (WHO) that 186 million people around the world experience either primary or secondary infertility. We in Africa are tagged as the continent with the highest birth rate and some countries in Central and Eastern Africa are also described as \u2018the infertility belt\u2019 of the world,\u201d the President noted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWHO tells us again that even though infertility in men is the course of 50 per cent of cases of a couple\u2019s inability to conceive, the economic, psychological and socio-cultural burden falls disproportionately on women,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Statistics have it that in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, 26 per cent of infertile women compared with three per cent of fertile women have never been married, while in Ethiopia, 85 per cent of childless marriages end in divorce within five years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn Tanzania, a childless widow may not inherit her husband\u2019s wealth. In South Africa, a survey conducted revealed higher levels of anxiety, depression and anger amongst infertile women. In Ghana, a woman who is infertile risks being treated as an outcast and having her marriage ended.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese cases, I believe, are not peculiar to these countries only but are also representative of the unfortunate situation prevailing on the continent.\u00a0 It must end,\u201d President Akufo-Addo stressed.<\/p>\n<p>The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Merck Foundation and Co-chairperson of the 6th edition of the Merck Africa Asia Luminary, Dr. Rashad Kelej, pledged the foundation\u2019s continuous commitment to train more fertility specialists in order to assist the African continent to deal with the infertility phenomenon among women.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-250809\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/19.-Prof.-Dr-Stangenbe-Haverkamp-ChairmanMerck-Foundation-speaking-at-the-conference-in-Accra-1-300x213.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"390\" height=\"277\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>The Merck Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany that aims to improve the health and well-being of people and advance their lives through science and technology.<\/p>\n<p>First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo during a brainstorming session added her voice to the President\u2019s call, expressing delight that African First Ladies are part of the great movement to address infertility in Africa.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-250810\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/AL4I2734-300x213.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"356\" height=\"253\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a movement of empathy, respect, empowerment and recognition of which your collective involvement is imperative to its success,\u201d she said, adding \u201ctogether we can make a difference, by building healthcare capacity, improving access to equitable health solutions and breaking the stigma of infertility in Africa and Asia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-250811\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/3.-Some-of-the-guests-at-the-Merck-Foundation-Annual-Conference-in-Accra.-300x213.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"387\" height=\"275\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Charles Takyi-Boadu &amp; Jamila Akweley Okertchiri<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Akufo-Addo (3rd right) in a handshake with Prof. Dr. Stangenberg-Haverkamp (3rd left), Board Chair of MERCK Foundation, Rebecca Akufo-Addo (2nd right) and Dr. Rasha Kelej (right). Picture by Gifty Ama Lawson. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has made a passionate appeal for an end to the scourge of stigmatisation against persons with fertility problems, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":734236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-734235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Don\u2019t Worry Barren Women - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/10\/30\/dont-worry-barren-women\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Don\u2019t Worry Barren Women - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"President Akufo-Addo (3rd right) in a handshake with Prof. Dr. Stangenberg-Haverkamp (3rd left), Board Chair of MERCK Foundation, Rebecca Akufo-Addo (2nd right) and Dr. Rasha Kelej (right). 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