World Oceans Day at Goa

PANAJI:
The beaches of Goa bring the state so much joy and prosperity, and it only seems right to take some time out to honour them on World Oceans Day. The Drishti Group, have been contracted by the Department of Tourism to keep Goa’s beaches clean, jumped at the idea of the event that was proposed by Jill Ferguson, the Executive Director of Forca Goa. The clean-up drive is focused on bringing awareness to the community about the importance of our beaches, and the responsibility we all have in protecting them and our oceans from mismanaged waste.
Drishti’s CEO, Ravi Shankar and Jill Ferguson plan to begin the clean up at 4:30 pm and continue to 6:30pm. The group plans to meet at the main lifeguard tower on Calangute beach around 4pm and spend the next couple of hours cleaning the beach with the help of the lifeguards, members of the FC Goa team, and about 60 kids from Forca Goa’s local grassroots centres.
Ravi Shankar and Jill Ferguson plan to celebrate the day by making it into an event and installing an infographic board on the tower announcing the importance of the oceans and local marine life. In addition to the clean-up, the kids will be given the chance to create their own World Oceans Day posters to celebrate the importance of our marine life.
The team would like to showcase to the greater Goan community and onlookers the options they have to help solve the growing trash problem on Goa’s beaches.
1. Use the new garbage cans that Drishti plans to install around the coastline.
2. Use the new WhatsApp number Drishti created to register areas of your local beach that need to be cleaned.
3. Share waste management information with others in Goa to help make Goa’s beaches clean again.
The Drishti Group are commonly known for the lifeguards they have outfitted on the beaches of Goa to keep tourists and locals safe, and are now pivoting as a company to focus on all things to do with Goa’s beautiful beaches. Drishti took on the contract from the Department of Tourism to clean the beaches of Goa, expanding the things they protect to the natural ecosystem as well as the tourists. In an effort to do so they have created a WhatsApp number to circulate around to the public, can help them keep Goa’s beaches clean. The idea being that the community can send in images with geolocations and Drishti’s team will respond within 24 hours to take care of the mess on the beach. This app will enable them better coverage of the entire coastline.
ForcaGoa.org is an NGO started earlier this year by the new owners of FC Goa. Forca Goa’s mission is to use football to inspire positive development across the state, thus benefiting both the game of football and our fans. They’re main objective is to bring the community together through football, which in turn can help empower the greater Goan community to address a number of issues Goa is currently facing that fall outside of the game of football, in this case we are taking on the issue of waste management.