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News — 11 March, 2021

Asia and the Pacific Hub launches Facebook Community Impact Microgrants

Three communities in the Asia-Pacific have been selected as recipients of the Facebook Community Impact Microgrant. Congratulations to OSM Fiji, MapBeks in the Philippines, and the Geomatics Engineering Society at Kathmandu University!

Congratulations to OSM Fiji, MapBeks in the Philippines, and the Geomatics Engineering Society at Kathmandu University for being selected as the Asia-Pacific recipients of the Facebook Community Impact microgrant for 2021! They will be receiving up to $5,000 to support their proposed work with their communities.

OSM Fiji (Fiji) will work closely with their local community to establish operational datasets for disaster risk reduction that are open, accessible, verifiable, and locally owned. They will also conduct community awareness workshops on open data, implement local mapathons, and form local, regional, and internal relationships to empower intersectoral participation in the use of OSM for disaster risk resilience in Fiji.

OSm Fiji.jpg Source: Twitter User @nemaiakoto

MapBeks (Philippines) is an online community of LGBTQIA+ mappers and volunteers who will map the most unmapped province in the country. With the partnership and support of the Provincial Local Government Unit of Tarlac and several LGBT and AIDS service organizations, they plan to remotely map an area home to 1.3 million individuals at high risk of heavy flooding. Furthermore, they will be conducting SOGIESC (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Expression, and Sex Characteristics) trainings in conjunction with OSM and JOSM courses and validation webinars for LGU partners and local university students.

Mines and Geoscience Bureau Philippines.png Source: Mines and Geoscience Bureau Philippines

Geomatics Engineering Society (Nepal), a student organization under the Department of Geomatics Engineering, Kathmandu University, will map communities of the Chepang people, one of the highly marginalized indigenous nationalities and resource-poor tribes of Nepal, in Makwanpur district. The maps and data, which will include buildings, roads, land use, and other critical types of infrastructure, will be used to analyze disaster vulnerable areas and agricultural areas, and assess the needs for schools and health posts in the community. The data and maps will then be shared with various stakeholders like Shanti Griha Nepal, Planete Enfants & Developpement, Save the Children, Save Our Soul, Child Workers in Nepal (CWIN), USAID, Leo Club, the Rotaract Club, and various other local authorities for uplifting their communities.

GES KU.png Source: Geomatics Engineering Society

The panel of judges who selected these projects included Yunzhi Lin and Chris Leggett from Facebook and HOT Voting Members Arnalie Vicaryo and Adhitya Dido.

For more information about communities that have been awarded microgrants, visit https://www.hotosm.org/community/community-grants/.

The Community Impact Microgrants 2021 program is kindly supported by Facebook.