・THE ASIA CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FUND

June 2023 Issue 15

ACEF
News letter

もくじINDEX＜Foreword＞ Study Tour Working Group（Noriko Inoue)
Introducing the ACEF community:
ACEF’s Vision and Mission (Riichiro Oda)
Information on Crowdfunding 2023
Article on ACEF was published in Big Issue No. 456 andPanasonic!
Report on June events
Introducing new staff: Naomi Tamanuki
BDP Newsletter: May 2023 (translation by Moeko Ishii)
Please register to GOEN
Messages from ICU 18h service learning students
Call for donation: Youth Education at ACEF
ACEF YOUTH: 5th meeting※The PDF version of this newsletter is available on our hp.
URL https://acef.or.jp/mail_mag_2023june/※English version available on the homepage!

▶︎↑ Scene from the BDP speechcompetition held on June 13th, 2023.

ForewordThank you for your continuous support for theACEF mail news! We are happy to update you
about our activities in Japan and Bangladesh.
Today, we hope to share with you 10 articles on
our recent activities/projects and upcoming
events, along with updates on what is currently
happening in Bangladesh articles on our recentactivities/projects and upcoming events, alongwith updates on what is currently happening inBangladesh.

Study Tour Working Group

Noriko Inoue“Since the founding of ACEF, it is amazing that there have been a total of 45 study tours
over the course of 32 years. When the actual tour was canceled due to SARS, floods andterrors, alternate events were hosted such as a work and study tour in Japan at the Asia
Institute, or study tour with Bangaldeshis in Japan at the National Women's Education
Center. Recently, there have been more events such as the study tour seminars focusing onexperiencing the Bangladeshi culture, or ones with guest speakers from professionals whowork in Bangladesh. The number of activities easily exceeds 50 times.
There is no doubt that going to Bangladesh is a great opportunity, but even those who haveparticipated in events other than the study tours say that their perspectives changed andthere was change in the direction of their thoughts and ideas. Bangladesh has been
experiencing rapid development recently, but still it is hard to imagine the educational
environments of children who live in the rural areas or the urban slums. We visit
Bangladesh, not to see the poverty situation, but rather to see and learn the richness of thepeople’s hearts and to redetermine our own lives. I am looking forward to having more
people join the study tour.” (Noriko Inoue, board member)
1・June 2023 Issue 15

THE ASIA CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FUND

ACEF Community Riichiro Oda
ACEF's Vision and Mission“Here I would like to introduce you to the difference between mission and vision inorganisation management, in the context of international organisations and NGOs.
There are multitudes of organisations that work to better the education or social work in
the developing countries, and the mission is what states the unique commitment of eachorganisation. At ACEF there are the visions “to fulfil a calling to live in solidarity withothers, ACEF seeks to work in partnership with the peoples of Asia”, “to provide educational
opportunities for growth for younger generations so that they will be equipped to build aworld where people of different cultures and ethnicities can respect each other.”, and that
“ACEF is committed to connecting the peoples of Japan and Bangladesh by creating spaces
where each can learn from each other and experience mutual growth.”. As we can see, there
are many words that represent “togetherness”, and it is important to think how theinterdependence between the organisation and society can create synergy and find value
together.
Based on the missions which are rather ambiguous, the vision expresses the futureaspirations on specific issues of the organisation. The vision is like an imagery that we haveon the future sceneries of school, families, and areas. ACEF envisions to “create a society
where people can share in the joy of living together knowing that the dignity of each person
will be respected.”.
This is still quite ambiguous when put into spoken words. In order to further apply thisvision, we must look at the reality, now, in order to experience dignity or the joy of living inthe society we can imagine what the future would be like, and what kind of difference youwant to make through ACEF. By painting out the vision, speaking out loud and listening to
one another, organisations are energised.” (Riichiro Oda, board of trustees)

ACEF
Information on Crowdfunding YOUTH We want to intern at【Crowdfunding to Encourage ACEF Youths' activities】

This year ACEF will hold an internship program at BDP
as the first attempt as well as the study tour. To encourage
youths to engage in further international exchange andcooperation, ACEF Youth will start a crowdfunding
campaign to support those programs. Please stay tuned
for more information! Thank you for your support.

BDP schools!
We want to join theStudy Tour!

＜Campaign :7/5 (wed.)～8/3 (thu.)＞①First goal 300,000 yen（breakdown）
Study Tour 4％・Intern aid 5％ 189,000 yen（13,500 yen x 14 ppl.）
Return gifts・postage（20% of donated amount） 61,000 yen
いっしょプラン（For Good's support fees）50,000 yen2

・June 2023 Issue 15

THE ASIA CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FUND

Big Issue Vol. 456 andPanasonic Home Page
ACEF’s interview was published on Big Issue Vol.
456 (issued June 1), and Panasonic Group
Corporate Citizenship Activities’ home page! Mr.
Oda, ACEF’s previous director and Mr. Kawami,
ACEF’s previous vice-chairman, spoke about
ACEF’s endeavors in strengthening theorganizational foundation during 2020-21.

▶︎Panasonic URLhttps://holdings.panasonic/jp/corporate/sustaina
bility/citizenship/pnsf/report/acef-or.html

ACEF Youth event
The event “Let’s learn about
Bangladesh & mini Bangla lesson”
hosted on Saturday, June 3 was asuccess! We learned about the foodculture and traditional clothes
together through online discussions.
Also, ACEF’s partner, Ms. Yuko
Fukushima taught simple greetingsto phrases practical for daily use inBangla. It was a very enjoyable time.
Thank you for your support and forjoining us!

ご報告

Event report

ICU service learningevent

On May 30th, the Handicrafts seminar was heldat Seabury Chapel in ICU. So many students joined us, and we learned about theBangladeshi culture from the handicrafts. The discussions were lively and we all
enjoyed bengal tea together too!
In the following week, on June 6th, Dignity Cafe was hosted at the Wisteria Hallin Momi dormitory at ICU. We learned about “dignity” which ACEF values.
More specifically, there were group work discussions about “what is dignity?” or“how can we protect one another’s dignity?”3

・June 2023 Issue 15

THE ASIA CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FUND

BDP speech competition

On June 13th, BDP held a speechcompetition, which was on air via YouTube. 5 students from BDP presented
their book reports on the work “(open the door, outside is wide- story of Sakichi Toyoda)”, translated intoBangla. The students compared their lives to the one of Sakichi, growing up in apoor village, and relentlessly inventing machinery that helps people around theworld. The students’ confidence and speeches were very impressive.
The YouTube archive is available to everyone, so please take a look if you
missed it! URL
https://www.youtube.com/live/k9PuxAVg3wM?feature=share

障子をあけてみよ 外はひろいぞ 豊田佐吉ものがたり↓

Introducing new staff: Naomi Tamanuki"I have been in charge of administration at the secretariat since May 2023. Although
we face many challenges in this world, I would like to be a support for the children
in Bangladesh to flourish through necessary education, and for the people in theyounger generations in Japan to become global leaders, both through the activitiesof ACEF. I look forward to working with our members and volunteers to establish
valuable activities and increase awareness of our activities." (Tamanuki)

BDP magazine: May 2023 issued(translated by Moeko Ishii)
BDP began the issue of their magazine to share more about their activities with theworld. The next issue is planned to be in June. This month’s magazine is available inJapanese 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/

4

・June 2023 Issue 15

THE ASIA CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FUND

Information on payment system change and request toresubscribe to GOEN!
Along with the change in our membership management system, we are changing themembership payment system from “Syncable” to “GOEN”. The new payment system“GOEN” is directly linked to the membership system. Thus this change will allow us toreach out to our supporters even more efficiently and without any fallouts.
For the current members who are subscribed to Syncable, we ask you to re-subscribeto GOEN. Please refer to the website for detailed instructions
https://acef.or.jp/news/re-entry-and-cancel/
Please also unsubscribe from Syncable from here
https://help.syncable.biz/hc/ja/articles/115003542393
We deeply apologize for the inconvenience. Please let the ACEF office know if you
have any questions. Thank you for your understanding and your support!

↓↓ACEF
x ICU
group
1

handi
craft
semi
narMessages from ICU 18h Service Learning students“This program put me in a position to act voluntarily and make decisions
myself. We tried to come up with many ideas together, but it surprisingly
took a lot of time to decide on what to actually do. At the actual event, wepresented about ACEF and Bangladesh, and were astounded by how sincere
the participants were while we presented. It was encouraging to see themworking together to think about “cooperation” and I think it was a very funtime. This Service Learning program gave me not just an opportunity tothink about supporting developing countries, but made me think about how I
can interact with other countries. Also, I learned that I will be able to expand
the range of my activities through taking initiative and act voluntarily. I hope
to continue working with ACEF, to do crowdfunding and work to help build
libraries in BDP schools!” (Yuto Onagi, year 1)“During the event preparation, I was unsure if I could prepare the documents
and slides on time. Also, since the topic was international cooperation, which
is a rather complex theme, I was extremely careful of choosing the suitablewords and phrases. At the actual event, there were more participants than I
expected, and it was difficult to manage the time, but I think it was a successand I am satisfied with how it turned out. Through ACEF’s activities,
especially through the online interview with BDP and BDP’s handicraft
teacher, I realized that my definition of “normal” is very different fromothers. Moreover, I realized that the difference is even bigger between
different countries such as Japan and Bangladesh, and felt the difficulties of“international cooperation”. I want to remember that many perspectives exist
in the world, as I further my studies at the university. I hope to continue
thinking and actively interact with various perspectives.” (Eri Ito, year 1)

5

・June 2023 Issue 15

THE ASIA CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FUND

"When we decided to host the Dignity Cafe, we started at the beginning oflearning about dignity. We were all nervous if we could learn and prepare
enough to host this event, but with the help of Mr. Jeffrey and others, I am
happy to report that it was a success. We were not able to promote enoughbefore the event so there were less participants than expected, but itturned out to be a very cozy atmosphere to have discussions. Through thisSL program, I was able to learn how to prepare and host an event, andlearn about dignity myself. I want to continue thinking about dignity, andreflect what I learned in my own activities. (Minagi Tsushi, year 2)"We hosted Dignity cafe as a part of our service learning program atACEF. We were worried if we could learn enough about 'dignity' toexplain it in an understandable way to the participants of the event. We
prepared by reading about it, and sharing about our friends to process andunderstand it in my own words. On the day of the event, there were lesspeople than expected, perhaps it was the bad weather, so we were a littlenervous. However, this allowed us to have a rich discussion. I learned that
there are very many preparations necessary for hosting an event. I want tocontinue the study of 'dignity' as a part of my lifetime learning, and hope
to host the second dignity cafe." (Rei Negishi, year 2)

ACEF
x ICU
group2dignitycafe← Handicraft

seminar at
Seabury Chapel← Dignity Cafe at
Wisteria Hall inMomi dormitory

6・June 2023 Issue 15THE ASIA CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FUND

Call for donation: Youth Education at ACEF
One of ACEF’s goals this year is to focus on supporting YouthEducation/activities. We have supported the connection building between
the children in Bangladesh and youths in Japan through our study tours
and various activities. Now as we face the rapid globalization of the world,
we ask for your support and donations for the youths in Japan andBangladesh to experience and learn how we can“live together”. (thisdonation is not a part of the summer 2023 crowdfunding project)
The current activities of ACEF Youth are…
crowdfunding
event organization
handicrafts and bazaar
SNS and PR
Click here : https://acef.or.jp/news/supportyouth/

ACEF Youth

ACEF YOUTH: fifth meeting→

What is ACEF Youth?
At ACEF, many youths from awide age range of youths are participating in their fieldof interest. For example education, development,resolving poverty, etc.. ACEF Youth is a groupconsisting of such members. (insert photo)
At ACEF Youth, everyone's passion and skills are used,
whether it is updating social media, working withhandicrafts from Bangladesh, etc.. If you are interested
in taking part at ACEF, please feel free to contact us in
the email below!
email:public@acef.or.jp

find us onsocialmedia!

follow us→ https://linktr.ee/acef.ngo（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

7