The State team of Caritas India organised a webinar on Laudato Si implementation plan to share the models proposed by Caritas India as part of the fifth anniversary year of Laudato Si. Various eco-friendly measures are proposed by Caritas India in the Laudato Si anniversary year and it was organised under the banner of Caritas Institute of Developmental Action & Learning (CIDAL). The year 2020 brought with it a significant anniversary for environmentalists around the world, as fifty years had passed since the celebration of the first Earth Day in 1970. This golden anniversary was accompanied by the five year anniversary of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’: On Care for our Common Home, an encyclical letter that meets issues of global warming and environmental catastrophe head-on and calls for an urgent and all-encompassing global response to issues that have long been a need of serious attention. As such, 2020 presented an opportunity to not only celebrate the environmental progress we have made in the last half-century but to reflect on and rededicate ourselves to the work that still needs to be done. We might challenge ourselves to take the teachings of Laudato Si’ more seriously with a shared purpose that looks to enact real and significant global change.

The input session on Laudato Si to her partner organizations of Kerala, Jharkhand and Orissa was organised on 14^th December 2020 at 10.30 am – 12.30 pm for Kerala State, 14.30 hrs -16.30 hrs for the partners in Jharkhand. The webinar for Orissa partners was organised on 16.12.2020 at 15.00 hrs- 17.00 hrs. Total of 45 participants attended the webinar in all the three states. Ms. Larina Fernandes welcomed the participants of Kerala, Mr. Erose for Jharkhand and Mr. Nutan for the participants of Orissa.

Father Jolly Puthenpura, the Asst. Executive Director of Caritas India inaugurated the webinar and set the context of the webinar. Fr. Jolly said that the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development announced a Special Laudato Si’ Anniversary Year from 24^th May 2020 – 24^th May 2021. Pope said that coronavirus has highlighted the importance of “caring for our common home,” and voiced hope that reflections surrounding the Laudato Si’ anniversary will “help to create and strengthen constructive attitudes for the care of creation. The fifth anniversary of Laudato si’ coincides with important events in the race to find solutions to the environmental crisis. This year is the deadline for countries to announce their plans to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement. The year 2020 will also see the UN’s conference on biodiversity, in which humanity will have the opportunity to set meaningful targets to protect the places and species that sustain all life. To commemorate the fifth anniversary of Laudato Si, Caritas India, the leading humanitarian organization in India is organizing a series of events in association with its partners and collaborators in India. Fr. Jolly said that we have already organised training in other parts of India and happy that it is done for Kerala, Jarkhand and Orissa with the active participation of the Diocesan Directors and Coordinators.

The purpose of this webinar is to establish, demonstrate and advocate planning, implementation and monitoring processes that aim at adapting and mitigating climate change and bring climate justice. Network and share good practices, approaches and results for wider influencing, to bring in Climate Change as the cross-cutting issues in all the projects, programs and interventions of the institutions within the dioceses and to adopt green protocol campaign in all the institutions of the dioceses with no to plastics being used in the campus, no to paper/plastic cups and plates, encourage multispecies planting of trees for more  Oxygen, reduce food mile, promotion of local resources, promotion of natural farming, promote water management, waste management, renewable energy sources etc.  Dr. Haridas V.R, the Manager for Climate Justice division of Caritas India conducted sessions on the proposed components of Caritas India in the anniversary year of Laudato Si. To promote climate justice and caring for our common home and voiced hope that reflections surrounding the Laudato Si’, Caritas India proposes the few actions and explained in detail the methodology of setting up of models such as:

1. Promoting Garden of Eden to ensure safe to eat food promotion
2. Roof Zone Fertigation Techniques in Tree Plantation for faster growth of plants
3. Promotion of Green protocol
4. Promotion of Green umbrella initiatives in Campuses.

The webinars in all the three states were concluded with the clarifications on the components mentioned in the sessions which was followed with the vote of thanks and an action plan.