Hasna El Badaoui is a well known stage and television actress in Morocco. She is the daughter of the celebrated playwright and actor, Abdelkader El Badaoui. She has a B.A. in English Literature and an M.A. in Theatre with a concentration in Drama Therapy from Hunter College of the City University of New York. Her Master's thesis examines the use of sociodrama in building and maintaining self-esteem in individuals living with HIV/AIDS. Hasna El Badaoui is a member of the National Association of Drama Therapy.
From 2000 to 2004, Hasna El Badaoui worked, in New York city, as the coordinator of the Susan and Jack Rudin Multimedia Center at Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center, a long term health care facility for persons with AIDS, individuals with chronic disabilities such as Hunthington's disease and Multiple Sclerosis, elderly individals who need daily nursing care, and children with chronic special needs.
Ms El Badaoui conducted a number of therapeutic programs. These include a therapeutic writing program, a drama therapy group, and after the 9/11 tragedy, she developed and implemented a seminar course in "cultural diversity", where speakers come in to talk about different religious or cultural traditions and encouraged questions and answers to help promote cultural and religious understanding with the hope of reducing prejudices. The objective of these programs was to assist the patients in developing and maintaining social skills as well as improving their cognitive functioning and foster the learning of new leisure skills adapted to meet their individual needs. |