#TGLife
Taking the cause of water conservation the seventh edition of its annual beach walk, the YWCA of Goa’s walk was supported by over 250 participants wearing blue, by gathering at Miramar beach sunrise for the 5 km walk. Every one took a water pledge holding a shell in their hand as a sign of solidarity. To start the walk off, the youngest participant, seven-month-old Yana Carissa Fernandes cut the ribbon. The event was environment friendly, using paper décor and no plastic bottles or disposable paper cups. A water station was set up with tumblers. Text was printed on the reverse of used paper. To raise funds for community outreach programmes, the YWCA had cloth bags for sale, a gaming stall and a fun game of ‘Guess the weight of the cake’. Dr Baker from Margao put up cupcakes for sale, the proceeds which went towards the YWCA. Spot prizes were given and old school team games were played. A flash mob danced with everyone dancing in blue. “Let’s act before it’s too late. Let us be the change. Every drop counts,” said Dr Rita Vaz, president, YWCA Goa. Over 150 citizens participated in the ‘Walk for Freedom’ which was held recently in Panaji to raise awareness about human trafficking . In total, over 4600 people participated in the walk in 10 Indian cities, joining thousands of others across 450 locations in 50 countries on the world’s largest walk against slavery. The lead partner for the walk in Panaji was Bethesda Life Centre. The walk was declared open by founder of Bethesda, Beena Philip. Before the walk, the participants took a pledge to do everything possible within their means to help end trafficking in their lifetimes and walked single file holding placards that bore statistics on human trafficking.
