For the first time, founders of six prominent Facebook groups of Bangladesh have got the opportunity to attend the Meta Asia Pacific Community Accelerator (APCA) program to be held in Singapore on Friday.
They started for Singapore from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on Thursday morning, Women and E-Commerce Trust (WE) President Nasima Akhter Nisha, also one of the six participants, confirmed to Dhaka Tribune.
WE is popular platform of over 450,000 entrepreneurs and its social media community has over 1.3 million members.
The five other selected groups are Foodbank Bangladesh, School of Engineers, Pencil Foundation, Oporajita and Castaway on the Moon (COTM).
In Asia Pacific region, six of the 19 participants are from Bangladesh, seven from the Philippines, three from Indonesia and one each from Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
The event aims at helping innovative and impactful Bangladeshi groups develop and grow their communities and reach their collective goals.
The selected groups would receive $40,000 from Meta's GlobalGiving grant and two from each group are being given four-month advanced training.
“During the meet, I'll have an opportunity to tell the world the story behind the formation of the group and its activities since its inception in 2017. This is a great scope for me,” WE President Nisha said.
The Meta authorities have selected 135 groups around the world under the program this year.
Meta organizes the program to help community leaders on Facebook advance their skills and utilize digital tools to deepen their impact.
“We are excited to see people in Bangladesh use Facebook as a platform to build community and make a positive impact,” said Siddharta Swarup, Meta's Social Impact and Communities lead.
