Learning About Impact – Dali Junior Youth Service Project

In September 2010, one of the community-based organizations the Badi Foundation is supporting in Dali, Yunnan Province started offering the Junior Youth Empowerment Program to Form 1 students in collaboration with the HaiDong Secondary School.  In May 2011, after studying some preparatory materials to enhance their English language comprehension, the Form 1 students began studying Breezes of Confirmation, one of the texts of the Junior Youth Empowerment Program.   Soon after beginning studying Breezes of Confirmation, the students, with their teacher’s encouragement, decided to undertake a service project in ZunZhuang village, where some of the students were from.  As the public bathroom in the village had not been cleaned in a long time and was very dirty, the students decided to clean it. Before starting the project, the students consulted about how they would go about doing this and made a plan.

15 junior youth participated in the project to clean the public bathroom. Although the conditions were difficult, the junior youth insisted on cleaning the bathroom thoroughly. One student, ZhaoDan, was very excited to join the activity and was very eager to participate, but the dirty conditions in the bathroom made her feel ill, so she went outside.  Upon seeing her classmates’ perseverance, however, she went back inside and continued to clean.

With the collaborative hard work of the students, the public bathroom was cleaned very quickly.  In the process of cleaning, the students not only experienced the happiness of serving their community, but also tasted the power of teamwork and mutual encouragement.

In her written reflection after the activity, one of the participants shared the following about how participating in the service project helped her realize that helping others is a source of happiness:

Participating in service makes me realize that helping people is the source of happiness, and I found out that helping people is not really that difficult at all. When others need a helping hand and you give them your help, you can feel a lot of satisfaction and happiness in your heart.

Junior youth sweep the area outside the washroom and carry water to be used to clean the washroom

The activity was to clean a bathroom. Although the bathroom was not in our village and was very dirty, my classmates were very self-motivated and brought their own tools to set a good example. This activity reinforces my belief of helping people is the source of happiness, and I also love the feel of belonging. While we were cleaning the bathroom, an old lady came in, she was so happy to see us doing service for her community and she said:  ”These kids will surely go to college one day.” We were all very delighted on hearing this. The words of the old lady motivate us to work even harder for the community. This experience prepares me for the upcoming service projects and I am looking forward to the next activity “Youth Community Service”.

Another participant expressed how the experience changed the way she thought and impacted her behavior:

The transformation resulting from the effort of the junior youth

The process of cleaning up was really hard, and I had to deal with some unpleasant rubbish, but when we saw how clean it was when everything was done, we were so proud and joyous about it. It reminds me how foolish my behavior of littering before was. It also reminds me of how exhausted my parents are when they are working. They work every day but they never utter of word of bitterness. So we should share our parents’ burden by helping them to do housework so they can have more rest. In my opinion, our village should have more service projects to clean and beautify our homes. This does not only help others but also gives ourselves satisfaction. When helping others, my heart is filled with excitement and happiness, when I see the smiles on others’ faces, I am so contented, maybe it comes from the process of helping others. I am willing to work hard in exchange for the happiness of helping others. I love helping people.