The project comes from India with an initiative called “Project HOPE” (“Healing, Opportunities, Protection and Empowerment”). A grassroots movement, started by seven people under 35 years of age with the aim of providing economic “empowerment” to deafblind and vulnerable youth and disadvantaged women and under the guidance of Caritas Goa. The project will form the local community (parishes, civic bodies, schools, etc.) to intervene on behalf of these people through an emergency telephone line (“Childline”) to ensure that those in difficulty have access to immediate assistance with a path to long-term reintegration and empowerment. The beneficiaries of the project will be trained in the use of natural and local resources (mainly banana fibers, coconut shells and recycled paper) to produce eco-friendly toilet paper, soap and other handicrafts that are displayed and sold in 5-star hotels with which a partnership of a fraternal economy has already been established in this region of natural beauty, which receives 10 million tourists every year. In this way, 2000 trees will also be saved. Through Project HOPE, and in the Jubilee Year of Hope 2025, the young change-makers aim to create a model for local communities, the State of Goa and the entire nation of India, whose Government has been withdrawing such assistance, in favor of disadvantaged and vulnerable people.
Il video del progetto vincitore 2025