From the beginning of the pandemic, information started flooding through social media. But authorized and audited information was rare, and some information was provocative. People got confused and panicked by the amount of information they perceived. To disseminate the correct information among people and organize youths in emergencies, the ACT Foundation built the largest online community in Madaripur on Facebook in April 2020. 4000+ members joined the group. This group played a significant role in creating awareness among people, organized a 300+ youth team to support local government, and shared daily CORONA COVID-19 local and national updates. The main goal of this group was to pass the correct information to people and make them aware of the situation.
This group was to give mental support to people. People got bored at home. ACT Foundation organized cultural programs in the group to entertain people. To break the monotony of the usual post, ACT Foundation came up with the idea of a “Photo Contest,” of which the context was the Arial Khan River. Almost a hundred-plus photographers participated in the event.
The foundation also started telemedicine service and counseling sessions as people were not allowed to go out—a 20+ doctors’ team who have given telemedicine services on call. A team of 20 volunteers from the foundation circled the social distance mark in 5 bazars in Madaripur in collaboration with the local administration (DC) office during the pandemic. The foundation managed 15-day food support for 1000 families partnering with “Mission Save Bangladesh” in Madaripur who could not afford food as their source of income was hampered due to the lockdown. The foundation also assisted marginalized people who don’t have access to ICT devices to register for the COVID-19 vaccine in Madaripur.
