PANAJI: The Vasudeva V Dempo Climate Change Awareness programme for Goan school students, a Dempo-TERI (The Energy Resource Institute) initiative was formally launched on Friday at Dempo House, Panaji. It coincides with the 75th birth anniversary of late Vasudeva V Dempo.

The relevant Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Ms Ranjana Saikia, Director of Environment Education and Youth Services, New Delhi and Mr B T Boke, senior general manager, Human Resource, Dempo Group of Companies amidst the presence of Mr Shrinivas V Dempo, Chairman, Dempo Group of Companies, Mr Vishwasrao Dempo, Director of Dempo Group of Companies and other dignitaries.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Shrinivas V Dempo, mentioned that the launch of this programme is a fitting tribute to his father, late Vasudeva V Dempo on his 75th birth anniversary.
He added that climate change is a sensitive issue and the whole world is taking note of it. “Climate change is the challenge of the day, for the country,” he stated.
He confirmed that this programme is not restricted to providing monitory benefits to TERI. “We will be having our own committee that will interact with TERI during this programme. This is yet another effort to deepen the commitment towards the Goan community,” he added.
Elaborating further about the Corporate Social Responsibility he remarked that the Dempo group is interested to work with NGOs like TERI. He also mentioned that the group is aware about the challenges Goa is facing and is working in that direction. “We are appointing an anthropologist who will study rural Goa for a period of 15 months and will present a report on the issues of rural Goa. Then we will work out a PPP (Public Private Partnership) model with the government or work with an NGO to deal with these issues,” he concluded.   
Ms Ranjana Saikia in her address mentioned that climate change is a reality and Goa is vulnerable to it as it is a coastal state. About the programme she mentioned that it will be carried out in 30 different schools of Goa that will educate about climate change.
She added, “This programme is for two years and deals with all the issues related to climate change right from energy to waste. Similar programmes are held in different parts of the country and even in places like Andaman and Lakshadweep.”
Mr B T Boke stated that this programme is a best tool to educate junior citizens about climate change.
Ms Shabana Kazi, Assistant Field Coordinator, TERI in her presentation informed that this programme will run from July 2010-2012 and will cover a total of 30 schools from rural and urban parts of Goa. It will mainly target students from standard Vth to VIIth. The education would be by way of workshops, survey/interviews, resource material, competitions, field visits, development of web page and updating it.