Badi Foundation Macau SAR, China

About Badi Foundation

Mona Partner Since 2010

The Badi Foundation offers the Moral Empowerment through Language Program (METL) to three local schools in Macau. The curriculum is offered to junior high school students during school hours and as an extracurricular activity facilitated by older youth.

In a joyful environment the students explore their purpose in life, consult about challenges they are facing and strategies to overcome them, and find concrete ways to serve each other and the wider community. The program content covers a series of themes such as confirmation, intellectual and spiritual excellence, hope, and the power of speech.

The Challenge

Macau has undergone rapid changes over recent decades, particularly with the expansion of the gaming industry. Many parents are employed in the industry, and their work often involves long and irregular hours. A government report indicated lack of communication between parents and children as being a concern, and another study indicated that “research also reflects a dramatic increase in youths’ stress levels, originating from pressure at school as well as family conflicts” (Luk et al., 2013, p. 1). Recently, the Director of the Education Bureau in Macau expressed his concern about the phenomenon of suicide among youth in Macau, and commented on the need for the underlying causes of this phenomenon to be addressed through a broader “social effort” involving the collaboration of a number of actors in Macau, including educational institutions and families.

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The Solution: Badi Foundation Programs

Moral Empowerment through Language Program (METL)

Macau's rapid material development has raised the need for educational programs that can develop in young people a broader understanding of the purpose of education, equip them to counteract the negative forces at work in society, and assist them to channel their energy into service to the community.

The Badi Foundation’s Moral Empowerment through Language Programme seeks to provide junior youth and youth with an opportunity to interact and explore meaningful ideas in a relaxed and joyful environment.

Program objectives are to:

Empower junior youth to develop a sound moral structure that will help them become agents of change for the betterment of their

communities

Increase their capacity to identify community needs and plan and carry out service activities that grow in complexity over time
Enhance their powers of expression in English
Build the capacity of youth, ages 15 – 30, to nurture the development of junior youth through peer mentoring

How we help

Mona Foundation has supported Badi Foundation since 2010. The METL program relies on one full-time staff and volunteer coordinators to support the scores of youth mentors who work directly with the junior youth.

2023 Achievements

Collaborated with 3 schools
Trained 115 volunteer mentors and empowered 355 junior youth
Annual Youth Camp resumed

2024 Needs, $23,153

Continuing to improve the quality of teacher training, which has had an overall impact on the program.
Program depends on one full-time staff coordinating efforts of 100 volunteers

Support Badi Foundation's 2024 Needs

Updates

Moral Empowerment Through Language

Badi Foundation offers the Moral Empowerment through Language Program (METL) to local schools in Macau. The content of the program invites the participants to explore a series of themes such as confirmation, intellectual and spiritual excellence, hope, and the power of speech.

Below are a couple reflections shared by students in 2021:

“I have learned that confirmation is like a wind that pushes us to achieve our goals in daily life. I also learned that unity in diversity is very important because if we don't have it, then our communities will tear apart.”

“In METL, our animators give out questions and discussions for us to "train" our brain. I think I have improved in expressing my ideas, opinions and emotions in these discussions.”

Minnie

Minnie participated in the METL program while attending middle school and encountered the program again through a university service club at the Institute for Tourism Studies. Minnie joined the university program, became an METL volunteer mentor, and spent the next two years helping to expand the program at a local high school. She also helped recruit other volunteers from her university to run the program with her. After she graduated, Minnie worked briefly in the tourism industry, but then decided to join the Badi Foundation full time. She has been working with Badi to empower younger generations ever since.