Badi Programs
The Environmental Action Program
The Environmental Action Program (EAP) is aimed at promoting the social and
economic development of the local community by empowering and strengthening
the capabilities of individuals and groups. This people-centered program is
focused on impoverished rural areas, attempting to stimulate individual initiative
in participants, assist them in influencing their families, and ultimately
in motivating other villagers to build a harmonious community.
Development trends in China indicate that rural women’s husbands generally
work in cities, requiring that women shoulder both farm and household responsibilities,
which has special implications for community development. First, women have
unique qualities and abilities to contribute when resolving community issues,
including their heightened ability to act as mediators, and their wisdom in
dealing with family problems or other fundamental social issues. Second, they
play an important role in securing food and economic security in their communities.
Society has the responsibility to recognize the value of their role and to
treat them with fairness and justice. The main focus of the EAP is to view
women as designers and planners, rather than solely as implementers and beneficiaries,
enabling them to contribute their knowledge, skills and attitudes to the development
of their families and community.
The EAP training emphasizes the importance of attitudes and interpersonal
qualities that lend themselves to unity and cooperation, including honesty,
selfless service, respect for others opinions and the investigation of truth.
Through developing their capabilities—including consultation and decision-making,
entrepreneurship skills, scientific knowledge about their environment and
agricultural practices—the program helps rural women to gain self-confidence,
strengthens their ability to participate in community affairs, and enables
them to contribute their abilities, knowledge and skills toward the sustainable
development of their family and community.
In recent years, the Chinese government’s emphasis on blending aspects
of rural culture and democratic management have given the Foundation a wider
array of opportunities to collaborate with a number of government agencies
in implementing the EAP. To date, the Foundation has enjoyed the support and
collaboration of the Foreign Capital Project Management Center of the State
Council of Poverty Alleviation, as well as a diverse group of Poverty Alleviation
and Women’s Federation offices at the provincial and local levels. In
addition, through the Institutional Capacity Building program, the Foundation
is collaborating with 11 grassroots institutions that are implementing the
EAP at a local level. Experience has shown that both government departments
and local institutions of civil society have an important role to play in
encouraging the social and economic development of local communities.
Since 2000, the EAP has reached a total of 4,096 participants, assistants
and local leaders in Gansu, Sha’anxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan and Hebei
provinces. These participants not only made significant contributions to the
social and economic development of their family and community, but also contributed
to the achievement of sustainable development in China.
The following documentary video, entitled Mountain Movers, captures the experience of some of the participants in the Badi Foundation’s Environmental Action Program”