The Asia Christian Education Fund・2022 December

BDP Samorsingh Primary School Library

ACEF Newsletter
December 2022
Thank you for your continuous support for the ACEF mail news. We are happy to update you
about our activities in Japan and Bangladesh. Today, we hope to share with you 9 articles on
our recent activities/projects and upcoming events, along with updates on what is currently
happening in Bangladesh.

✨What’s New!✨①Foreword: Dignity and Business (Masanobu Nomura)②Call for Christmas donation③Installment of libraries in Samarsingh and Satshimulia④Mr. Dicko from BDP visited the affiliated organizations⑤ACEF attended the Tomo no Kai meeting and worship⑥BDP magazine (Nov. & Dec /2022 issued)⑦Holiday greetings from ACEF staff⑧Invitation to the Illustration Contest for Donation 2022, by GOEN.
⑨Information on office holiday 12/28 - 1/4※The PDF version of this newsletter can be downloaded from our homepage.
▶︎URL https://acef.or.jp/mail_mag_2022december/※English version available on homepage!

Foreword: Dignity and Business (Masanobu Nomura)“Social business” is a word that is commonly used in the world today. When we think of theword “business”, we often have an image of pursuing one's own benefits and enriching one’sown company, thus I never personally felt connections to the topic of business. When it
comes to social businesses, however, the purpose of it is to “solve the social issues throughbusiness”, and I cannot help myself but to be interested. Up until recently, I believed that only

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funded bodies such as NPO and NGO could work on solving such social issues, especiallywhen the government system is not totally reliable. Today, I am interested and also have inmind that social businesses and enterprises can be recognized as a new hope. In a way, we
can think of these social-issue-solving businesses as those that recognize the situation andstructure of the world where “dignity” is not respected and work to improve and solve thesituation through business. The Borderless group is one example. Also, NGOs are also astructure/organization, and while its activities may be more limited than social businesses,
we are able to contribute and learn, and cooperate with these businesses. As ACEF, we want
to remember and keep in mind the topic of “dignity” in our vision statement, as we challenge
ourselves, too, in sustainable cooperation.”(Masanobu Nomura, board member)Call for Christmas donation
Thank you for your continuous support. We are now collecting Christmas/winter donations.
Please remember ACEF in this joyous Christmas season! (Please note that we ask you toinclude the process fees as a part of your donations.)▶︎Donate from URL→ https://syncable.biz/associate/ACEF1990/donate▶︎Donate from overseas→ https://acef.or.jp/learn-more-support-now/
Thank you for your contribution!

Installment of libraries in Samarsingh and Satshimulia
We are very grateful for your support in the crowdfunding campaign “Let’sbuild libraries for the children in Bangladesh!”. The library completion in BDP Samarsinghand Satshimulia primary schools was celebrated by the teachers, students and BDP staff.
There are 124 students studying at the Samarsingh school, located in Pubail district, andapproximately 100 students studying at Satshimulia school which is located in Barisal district.
We hope that the students will enjoy learning even more, and discover creative ideas throughthese libraries!

Mr. Dicko from BDP visited the affiliated organizations
Mr. Dicko, a BDP staff member, completed the training at Asia Rural Institute. From 12/15-19,
together with ACEF, Mr. Dicko visited various organizations/supporters and shared about his
experience at Asia Rural Institute, and about the current and future activities of BDP. On the16th, we visited the Toyo Eiwa Kindergarten, 17th at Tomo no Kai, and 18th at Urawa Higashi
Church, and finally on the 19th, at Kyoai Gakuen Middle and High School, and were given
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the opportunity to speak to the students there.

Mr.Dicko commented how he was nervous in each of his presentations, but felt the warm
welcome. It has been a while since we had a BDP staff visit us, so many of the welcoming
organizations also informed us that it was a wonderful experience for them also. Besides
visiting the supporters and organizations, we were able to gather some people from previous
study tours and members of ACEF, as well as board members to meet and spend some time
together. Even though years may have passed, the strong family-like connection between
ACEF and BDP was there for us to experience again.

ACEF attended the Tomo no Kai meeting and worship
We participated in the Tomo no Kai meeting andChristmas service. On 12/1, board member Noriko
Inoue gave a guest speech about “Pursuing genderequality- example from Bangladesh BDP primaryschools”. Satsuki Yanagihara, director of ACEF, wasalso given an opportunity to speak as well. On 12/8,board member Tetsuro Oda shared the message on“Pondering with Mary” at Tomo no Kai Tokyo Group 3, attheir Christmas service. From the director, there also
was another opportunity to share about ACEF and BDP,
and our recent activities.

Announcement: BDP magazine (Nov. & Dec. /2022 issued)
BDP began the issue of their magazine to share more about their activities with the world. The
next issue is planned to be in December. Moreover, this month’s magazine is issued with theJapanese translation as well! We hope to share about the situation at BDP, and am hoping for
you to feel more connected with the staff and students at BDP. Please check the HP for the
PDF file.
▶︎PDF is available on our HP: https://acef.or.jp/mail-magazine/

Holiday greetings from ACEF staff★Satsuki Yanagihara (Director)
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The Asia Christian Education Fund・2022 December“Hello everyone, it is now a busy season of Christmas and silvester/New years. It has alreadybeen half a year since I was welcomed into ACEF. I am blessed to have such excitement
everyday as I meet new people, face new challenges and discover another interesting thing
through my daily work and tasks. Also, I am so grateful to have your support in various ways
and encounters, and I am really feeling the warmth of ACEF. Although there is much for me tolearn still, I want to continue to challenge myself in this beginning of a new lively year in ACEF,
and pursue active partnership with BDP. Thank you, and I hope you will have a good holiday
season.”★Yoko Watabe（Staff）“Turmeric, a very well known spice which is often used in curry, is known as a natural remedy
for its antibacterial properties. Similarly, the spices included in ACEF’s Bengal Tea set is also
known to have various properties that are very beneficial to our health. For example,
cardamom encourages digestion, has relaxing properties and increases blood circulation.
Cinnamon can take away the coldness from our bodies and stimulates blood circulation as
well, which can warm the body. We can also add ginger, black pepper, or cloves to this tea,
which will allow our bodies to become so warm and fight off the bacterias. It is so interesting tolearn about these spices, thus allowing us to enjoy the teas evenmore. In this cold winter,please help yourself to this Bengal Tea Set and Bengal Curry Spices, and keep yourself warmand comfortable! Have a great rest of the year and new years.”★Hideki Okue（Staff）“The unreasonable Ukraine situation is only one example of how the decisions of egoistic
authorities are pressuring the lives of ordinary people. Even within our country Japan, there
are similar situations- in our economy, politics, and even within people’s positionalities- wherethe ideas of the strong ones are enforced of which these decisions are silently and hopelessly
acknowledged. There are many uncertainties in the world today, like the meaning of “money”
in this capitalist society and the “labor” that is being casted upon the pressured. Must we be
freed from the curse of economic growth… Questions such as this continue to challenge us. In
this world where the right answer seems to be impossible to find, I hope we may be
encouraged to work on these questions and issues together. I hope you welcome a good newyear.”★Yurika Dedachi（Staff）“2022 was a year full of exciting new opportunities such as the Study Tour which has been
postponed for the last two years, a crowdfunding campaign operated by university students
and other events like Dignity Cafe/Workshops. Also it was a delightful year, as manyhighschool and university students visited our office via Service Learning programs andvolunteer activities. We were able to connect online with the staff at BDP, to create
opportunities for elementary students in both Bangladesh and Japan to exchange letters, anduse each person’s unique gifts and talents in ACEF. Thank you for always supporting ACEF,and we are looking forward to another exciting new year! I hope you have a wonderful holidays
and a start into the new year.”

Invitation to the Illustration Contest for Donation 2022
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The Asia Christian Education Fund・2022 December
ACEF headquarters is currently in the process of transitioning into a new membershipmanagement system. We are receiving support from Team GOEN, a consulting team ofEnishiful Consulting, Inc.. Team GOEN is hosting an illustration contest, and we would like toinvite you to participate in this contest! The purpose of this contest is to create opportunities
for children to learn more about donation. We all hope for the children to have a fun andwonderful learning experience. Please share about this and participate! For more details,
please check out the link below.
▶︎Event information https://acef.or.jp/campaign/goen-illustrationcontest2022/

Information on office holiday 12/28 - 1/4
ACEF Office will be taking a break from December 28th, 2022 (Wed) - January 4th, 2023(Wed). We will return to our usual office schedule from January 5th. I hope your holiday
season will be a wonderful one!

Introducing our SNS platforms
We want to let you know of our newest activities, so we have various SNS pages!
【Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LINE】
We cover a wide range of contents, starting with emergency announcements, prayer
requests, daily scenes from Bangladesh and ACEF’s projects in Japan. Follow us from ourhome page!→https://acef.or.jp/
Thank you for your continuous support. We look forward to keeping connected with you!
*************************************************（Specified NPO）The Asia Christian Education Fund (ACEF)〒169-0051 Room 26, Nihon Kirisutokyou Kaikan, 2-3-18 Nishi Waseda, Shinjuku ku,
Tokyo
tel 03-3208-1925 fax 03-6278-9180
Contact：Dedachi
Unsubscribe? Please contact: public@acef.or.jp*************************************************

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