Merck Foundation marked ‘World Art Day’

Merck Foundation’s pan African TV program “Our Africa” addresses Social and Health issues through the ‘Fashion and Art community with Purpose’ Community created by Senator Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation.

Merck Foundation emphasizes on the importance of Art and Media communities as critical partners to raise awareness about sensitive health and social issues through their “OUR AFRICA” TV program and Fashion, Film and Song awards to mark “World Art Day 2023”.

Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA Germany marks World Art Day 2023 through their African Community of Art and Fashion with Purpose. This pan African community has been established by Merck Foundation CEO to raise awareness on sensitive health and social issues in Africa and beyond through their pan African TV program “Our Africa” that has been broadcasted on prime TV stations of many countries like KTV in Kenya, NTV in Uganda, and GH One TV in Ghana and ZNBC in Zambia, AYV in Sierra Leone and LTV, Liberia, and it immediately captured the attention and hearts of millions of viewers across Africa. “Our Africa” TV Program will soon be broadcast on TV 3 in Ghana, BTV in Botswana, KTN in Kenya and QTV in The Gambia. “Our Africa” TV Program is currently on social media handles of Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej.

Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation and One of 100 Most Influential Africans 2019, 2020, 2021 & 2022 said, “I am very happy to be celebrating the ‘World Art Day 2023’, as I strongly believe that Media, Art and Fashion play a very significant role in raising awareness on social and health issues and shaping the future development of our communities. Art and fashion have a purpose much beyond entertainment and looking good. They can contribute towards sensitizing communities about different social and health issues like Ending Child marriage, Ending FGM, Stopping GBV, Breaking Infertility Stigma, Supporting Girl Education and Women Empowerment and raise awareness about diabetes and hypertension and more. Hence, we engage with Art communities through many of our initiatives and programs like our TV program “Our Africa” and Fashio, Film and Song Awards, Children Storybooks, Songs and more.”

The UNESCO celebrates World Art Day to help reinforce the links between artistic creations and society, encourage greater awareness of the diversity of artistic expressions and highlight the contribution of artists towards sustainable development of the society.

“Art in Africa has a rich cultural legacy and history, we at Merck Foundation want to encourage the youth in the continent to make use of various forms of Art to create an impact and awareness on critical and sensitive social and health issues. With this thought, we have launched – ‘Our Africa by Merck Foundation’ TV Program to be the voice of the voiceless in Africa.

This TV program aims to break the silence about many social & health issues in our beloved Africa. Our aim with this TV program is to create a culture shift in the communities by focusing on relevant and important social and health issues in Africa.”, added Senator, Dr. Rasha.