Merck Foundation Together With African First Ladies Announces the Winners of 'Stay at Home' Media Awards to Raise Awareness About COVID 19

Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany announced the winners of “Stay at Home” Media Recognition Awards for African Countries. The theme of the awards was ‘Raising Awareness on how to Stay Safe and Keep Physically and Mentally Healthy during Coronavirus Lockdown’ with the aim to separate facts from myths and misconceptions.

The “Stay at Home” Media Recognition Awards were introduced in partnership with African First Ladies of Ghana, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Malawi, Namibia, Niger, Guinea Conakry, Burundi, Central African Republic (C.A.R.), Chad, Zimbabwe, Zambia, The Gambia, Liberia and Congo Brazzaville, Angola and Mozambique.

Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation emphasizes, “I am very proud of our winners. We received a tremendous response from African journalists in form of their entries. I truly believe that Media plays a crucial role in educating and sensitizing our communities about health and sensitive issues such as COVID-19, therefore, through the awards, we are recognizing the distinguished reportage and the exceptional work of journalists who frequently covered this topic in their countries.”

The Merck Foundation Media Awards Committee has further introduced a second and a third position and selected more than one winner, on some occasions, for each of the Four Categories from all the regions.

“The valuable contribution from the winners in sensitizing their respective communities about COVID 19 has encouraged us to additionally reward them all to become Merck Foundation Alumni and provide them with one-year access to online educational training program called “MasterClass”.

The MasterClass is an immersive online experience and self-paced learning course in English that can be accessed anywhere with the Internet. This is to motivate passionate journalists to continue writing and advocating for social, economic and health issues across their countries, added Dr. Rasha Kelej.