Nigeria’s Anike Lawal Among Winners of Facebook’s $10 Million Community Leadership Programme

It’s always good to hear and see Nigerians make huge social impact, especially on the global front. Anike Lawal is one of such Nigerians making a change in her community and we are more than thrilled!

Facebook recently announced the names of over 100 winners of the Facebook Community Leadership Programme (FCLP) made up of community leaders in residence, fellows and youth participants. The programme will support more than 100 individuals from 46 countries representing communities of varying topics and goals from civic engagement to health and wellness.

The programme is designed to give participants from around the world the support, funding, and tools that they need to lead in their communities. One of them is Anike Lawal, an FLCP Fellow who set up an online health and wellness community known as Mamalette.

Speaking on what led to the birth of Mamalette, Anike said: “When I got pregnant for the first time, I looked for online communities for mothers in Nigeria and didn’t find any at the time. Initially, I had no clue on how to start an online community. The most important thing I learned before I started was that Facebook was a good tool to build and grow communities. So, I set up a Facebook page over five years ago and later a group, to help pregnant women and new mothers connect with each other and have their numerous questions answered. Since then we have evolved to helping to reduce the preventable deaths of mothers and children. Of the 830 mothers who die every day giving birth, 550 of them are in Africa. I am now training and equipping mothers recruited through Facebook as health champions to provide women with support and crucial health information.”

According to Ime Archibong, the Vice President, Product Partnerships, “Community leaders play a critical role in bringing people closer together. Many of these leaders turn to Facebook, WhatsApp, and Messenger to create these connections, and often tell us that they could have more impact with additional support, better tools and access to funding. We created the Facebook Community Leadership Program to empower these leaders who are building communities around the world.”

Anike and the other FCLP Fellows will receive up to $50,000 each, while the five participants selected as Community Leaders in Residence will each be awarded up to $1,000,000 to fund their respective community initiatives.

To learn more about this, click here.

Can’t wait to see what they do over the next year!
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