Goa Gets Its First Community Radio Station as PACT Foundation Marks Third Foundation Day
Panaji, 22 August 2026 – PACT Foundation today marked its third Foundation Day at the Panjim Gymkhana with the launch of Radio Mandovi 88.4 FM, Goa’s first community radio station, and Goa FutureReady, a state-wide initiative to prepare the state’s young people for the future of work.
The celebration brought together students, teachers, headmistresses, community leaders, donors and partners from across Goa, in the presence of Bhumi Pednekar, Imtiaz Ali and Rahul Bose. The Hon’ble Chief Minister of Goa, Dr Pramod Sawant, extended his support to the gathering through a video message.
Addressing the gathering, Dr Ashwin Fernandes, Founder & President of PACT Foundation, said what began as an idea in 2023 had since become a movement. “We are lighting a lamp at every event and working to ensure we make the future bright for young people,” he said. “But now I want to move beyond lighting a lamp into a river that flows into every village of Goa. We are a small team and the impact is in five talukas. We have touched the lives of over 20,000 students in the past three years, close to 41 schools. That impact continues beyond the city schools into rural Goa. We want to develop our young people into visionaries for the future.”
Radio Mandovi 88.4 FM is based in Moira, where its broadcasting tower has been installed, and begins regular broadcasting from Sunday, 23 August 2026. Named for the river that has carried Goa’s people and stories for centuries, the station will broadcast in local languages on education, health, agriculture, culture and civic information, reaching households that print and the internet do not.
Satya Narayanan R, Founder of CL Educate, and Dr Ashwin Fernandes exchanged the Memorandum of Understanding and blueprint between PACT Foundation and CL Educate, formally launching Goa FutureReady – a joint initiative of PACT Foundation, CL Educate and the mySATHI Foundation to prepare Goa’s young people for higher education and the world of work. This will be done through specialised psychometric assessment followed by career mapping and personalised school-to-university pathways, offered free of charge to students across the beneficiary schools of PACT Foundation.
Bhumi Pednekar, whose own family roots are in Pernem, connected the Foundation’s work to dignity. “I have spent much of my life on screen and off it, telling stories of women and girls who refuse to accept the limits the world tries to place on them,” she said. “In one of my earlier films, I played a young woman in a village who fought simply for a toilet. The fight was not about a toilet, it was about dignity – the girl’s right to feel safe, to stay in school when she becomes a teenager instead of dropping out, to be treated as an equal at home. That is exactly why the work of the PACT Foundation moves me so deeply. When Dr Ashwin and his team walk into a school and build a clean washroom, a bright classroom, a library, a playground with swings that actually work, they are doing much more than merely pouring cement or fixing roofs.”
Rahul Bose spoke of Poorna, his film about a 13-year-old tribal girl from Telangana who climbed Mount Everest. “Poorna used to tend to her goats and got into a tribal school where students were enrolled in hobbies like rock climbing,” he said. “Nine months later she climbs Everest. She is studying for the UPSC right now. For me, that is what education is – and that is the kind of chance PACT Foundation is creating for children across rural Goa.”
Imtiaz Ali recalled his own decision to pursue films. “My father told me, ‘Do anything you want, but do it very well.’ The potential exists in each one of us – every talent that exists in this world also exists in you. All you need is some guidance. And that guidance is exactly what PACT Foundation is putting within reach of Goa’s children.”
Founded in 2023 by Dr Ashwin Fernandes, PACT Foundation works to transform government and under-resourced schools across Goa through its flagship Happy School Project, delivering smart classrooms, libraries, playgrounds, sanitation and resource rooms for children with special needs. In the past year alone it worked with 21 schools, benefiting 3,274 students and 208 teachers. Beyond school, its Goa Super 100 programme funds full undergraduate scholarships for meritorious students from marginalised families, while the QS ImpACT Youth Scholarship supports Goan youth to study in the United Kingdom.
