That We May Live Together
Asian Rural Institute2016

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Greetings
Ken’ichi Ôtsu, Chairman of the Board
Tomoko Arakawa, Director

27, 2011, when Dr. Richard Gardner, a professor at Sophia University
O ninJuly
Tokyo, mentioned the possibility of creating an external evaluation studyof the ARI training program, we were excited. We hoped to have such a study as
one of the activities of the 40th anniversary of ARI. That July, we were still in the
midst of much confusion a�ter the huge earthquake that had hit the eastern partof Japan, including the ARI campus. I assumed that the o�fer of a study would notcome to fruition. Surprisingly, and happily, the opportunity became a reality.
A�ter six years, one internal and two external researchers completed two extensive studies on ARI’s training and its impact on graduates. These studies weregoing on almost simultaneously with the reconstruction and recovery of thecampus a�ter the earthquake. Also, a�ter three years, we celebrated the 40th anniversary of ARI. In this past year, the greater ARI community brought the threebiggest events in ARI history to completion— the Earthquake Reconstruction
Project, our 40th Anniversary, and the studies on the ARI training and graduates.
I am thankful to God, more than at any other time, for making all these things
possible, and providing us with enough resources and wonderful people to carryout the numerous tasks involved.
These huge projects gave birth to many positive things. Campus reconstruction
resulted in the rebuilding of eight buildings including a �loor heating systemutilizing solar energy. The newly created ARI Becquerel Center measured andmonitored radiation levels a�ter the earthquake. In the 40th Anniversary events,
more than 300 people, including over 60 graduates, attended celebratory eventsand symposiums. We published a booklet on ARI’s 40 years history (“Forty Years of
Walking with Grassroots Leaders”) both in English and Japanese. We also createdthe “40th Anniversary Community Statement.” The Fetzer Institute in the US funded
one study. The results are summarized in a booklet titled “Bridging the Grassroots”(both in English and in Japanese). The United Methodist Church and the United
Church of Christ funded the other study. Two researchers visited 229 graduatesin 12 countries. The outcome of the study is in the form of a report and a book,”Leading at the Grassroots: A Study of the In�luence of Asian Rural Institute Graduates on
Communities” and ”Rural Leaders.” “Rural Leaders” was also translated into
Japanese. In summary, we published seven books, including translations, in six
years, which is a historic thing! We also published ARI’s ﬁrst journal named“Euodoō” recently. I am so grateful that each publication had talented editors,
writers, and designers!
A�ter completing these major projects, I am excited to a�ﬁrm that ARI has
entered a new phase of its history. In the course of implementing these projects,

Contents

we took advantage of many creative opportunities todiscuss, re�lect and evaluate our work as well as plan for the
future. In addition to that, the two studies about the training and impact of graduates provided us with important
recommendations. The vision that drove these studies andimportant events is building a constructive partnershipwith graduates and their organizations all over the world.
Our hope is to deepen cooperation with graduates in areas
such as curriculum development; recruitment of participants; capacity building of the graduates and their organizations, including programs such as post-graduate training;
and ARI sta�f training. We want to acknowledge the graduates and their organizations as precious agents who aretackling various problems and issues in the rural areas of
the world. I would like to ask God for his guidance so that
ARI can walk toward this bright future. Although it may be
slow, we are resolute!

Rural Leaders’ Real Faces
Insights from the Graduate
Impact Study

2

Leaders with HeartThe Rural Leaders Training
Program 2016

6

Foodlife at ARI

13“ARI at its Best,” Supported
by Coaching

16

Building a Network of Support

17

Finances

22Fi�teen Years of Fundraisingin Tokyo24

The 2016 Community

25

The Graduates of 2016back

Director of the Board, the Rev. Ken’ichi Ôtsu passed away on June 22,2017, due to acute leukemia. He was 73 years of age.

“My image of leadership changed a lot.
I learned about servant leadership from

Asian Rural Institute

Rural Leaders Training Centermuch practice of leadership in Japan.
I also want to be such a person.

“That We May Live Together”
2016 Annual Report

Now, I do not have any(April 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017)

Illustrations
Printing

fear of helping people.”

Ayumi Kojima
Minuteman Press© 2017 Asian Rural InstitutePaul Daina
2016 Participant(Central African Republic)

www.ari-edu.org
1Rural Leaders’ Real Faces

Insights from the Graduate Impact Study

After more than 40 years of training
rural leaders, ARI wanted to learn
more deeply about the impact of
its training on graduates' local
communities. For this purpose,
the Board authorized a two-year
Graduate Impact Study, carried out
by myself, Steven Cutting, former
staff member of ARI, and Bev Abma,a research consultant with extensive
experience in development work.
Together we traveled to remote partsof twelve countries in Asia and Africa
to meet with graduates and theircommunities, listen to their stories,
and discover the true reach of ARI.

2

photo: Steven Cutting

Encountering Rural Leaders
Steven Cutting, Consultant

he plan was to stay a night out in a remote village, but my guide, Myo, was

T tense. A week earlier, government troops had attacked a rebel outpost in

an area not too distant, killing a number of cadets. After a day of visiting ruralcommunities, he wanted to get us back to the relative security of the regional
capital. The place was Kachin State in Myanmar and Myo is an Anglican priest
and a 2004 graduate of the Asian Rural Institute.

CameroonTheodora Tata (’07 Graduate &’14 TA, right) visits the orphanage managed
by Eric Tangka (’07 Graduate, left)

During my nine years on staff at ARI I got
to know many people like Myo — dynamic
individuals from all over the world who arefull of energy and hope. I welcomed them as
they ﬁrst arrived, somewhat bewildered andshivering in the chill of Japan's early spring.
We shared meals, work, laughter, and tears
as we came together in our ARI community.
Over the course of the training I would
witness transformation as participants
discovered in themselves new capabilities,
new self-conﬁdence, and new potential for
leadership.
Yet, as exciting as this transformation is,
it is only the ﬁrst part of ARI's mission. The
work continues as graduates return to theircommunities and put their ARI learning to work.
Myo's community was one of more than
200 places Bev and I visited for this study,
and the moment we arrived I saw Myo in a
new light. He was the same fun-loving guy I
knew at ARI, but here he was in his element.
Myo took us to three of the 29 villages heworks with. When it came time to explain the
projects the villages had initiated, he would
stand to the side while villagers spoke withgreat excitement. They talked of building
wells, water storage tanks, and toilets,
establishing rice banks and money banks,and setting up a generator that runs on ricehusks to provide electricity in the evenings.
They credited Myo with these achievements,
but Myo instantly returned that credit,
pointing out that the village development
committees had coordinated the projects
and the people themselves had carried themout.

3

Ten of the villages Myo works with are
Buddhist communities, and at ﬁrst they
were suspicious of the motives of a Christian
priest. Distrust was compounded by ongoing
conﬂict between rebels and government
forces. In such a setting, the ability to makepeople feel at ease was an essential tool
for building trust. One woman said of Myo,“At ﬁrst we thought evil of him, but now weknow. He is funny, unselﬁsh, and gives good
explanations.”
Many times during our visit, Myo sharedwith us that living in the diversity of ARI's
community had a profound impact on him.
That a group of people with such different
cultural, racial, and language backgrounds
could come together at ARI in a spirit oflearning and cooperation encouraged him
greatly in his community work at home.
As I watched Myo and the villagers
interacting, I felt I was witnessing Rev.
Takami's vision — to invest in people who
would dedicate their lives to work as leaders
for their people. These local leaders are
doing what few outsiders can: they connect
with the people, build trust, and believe inthe people so strongly
that the people come tobelieve in themselves.
What impressed me
the most was the variety
of ways in which ARI
graduates adapt theirtraining to match thespeciﬁc needs in theircommunities. In Indonesia, Tigor Sihombing

GRADUATES

photos: Steven Cutting

The Villagers from the Kachin tribe have waited for
Daniel Myo Aung’s (`05 Graduate) visit.

Studies at “Sister Home,” a learning center for young Nepali women,established by Sayni Chaudhari (’95 Graduate, ’02 Training Assitant)teaches farmers how to set up pig and chicken
pens using a low cost, hygienic fermented
ﬂooring system – a technique he learned at ARI.
In Northeast India, Lhingnu Thoutang opened anorphanage/school just a few months after returning from ARI. The school has its own vegetablegardens and chicken pens which supplement
the children's meals and earn income. In Sri
Lanka, Naseer Mohamed has set up over 300
credit unions. He begins in each community, notwith a discussion about money, but by asking
them, “What are your dreams?” and builds fromthere. Then there were the meetings with thecommunities themselves. In Cameroon, when
Jane Francis Berinyuy took us to visit the Yabi
Mbot women farmers group, they gave her a big
bucket of yams. Jane commented that those werevery expensive, to which they replied, “It's okay.
We are rich farmers.” For me, hearing community
members speaking conﬁdently and hopefully
about their future beautifully completed the story
of ARI.
The two-year study was funded by the United Churchof Christ and the United Methodist Committee on Relief(UMCOR). Bev Abama processed and analyzed the data.
Bev submitted her ﬁndings and recommendations to
ARI in a report entitled "Leading at the Grassroots: A
Study of the Inﬂuence of Asian Rural Institute Graduates
on Communities" My job was sharing the remarkablestories of graduates, collected and laid out with photos
in a book called “Rural Leaders: The Work and Commu-

INSIGHT“Graduates leave ARI with a written dream or plan for how they
will implement their learning on returning home. Comparisonof those “re�lection papers” with ﬁeld data showed that 53%
were able to implement their plans in whole or in part. However, that does not include the signiﬁcant impacts all graduates
have had in their communities but had not envisioned during
their time at ARI. The most important factor determining if theplan was implemented or not was how it ﬁt into the vision andﬁnancial capability of their sending body.
Graduates were signiﬁcantly more e�fective in leadership thanin implementing agricultural skills. This is in keeping with
ARI’s desire to be a leadership training institution usingorganic agriculture as a means to that end. E�fective leadershipdid not seem to depend on whether or not the graduate lived in aparticular community as long as they had captured the importance of being like the people. Those servant leaders who usedparticipatory models of community mobilization and followed them up with supportand monitoring contributed towards positive
long-lasting development in a wide variety of
unique aspects.”

nity Impact of Graduates of the Asian Rural Institute.“#FWFSMZ"CNB

3FTFBSDI$POTVMUBOU

4

GRADUATES

Graduate Outreach — Toward the next step
Tomoko Arakawa, DirectorA

improve ARI operations in various ways. First and most importantly,
it may heighten the possibility that the graduates will realize their“dreams” from their ARI training once they return home to theircommunities/organizations. As the Graduate Impact Study revealed,
the question of whether the graduates can materialize their dreams
or not depends on how much their organizations understand theideas and future visions that the graduates have. If there is a soundrelationship between ARI and the graduates’ organizations, ARI canhelp promote understanding in the graduates’ organizations.
A stronger relationship between ARI and the graduates’ organizations will also help our recruitment. We have been trying hard toincrease the number of quality applicants. A good relationship withthe organizations will help us better understand the realities andcontexts of rural areas where potential applicants live and work.
This will enable us to identify additional quality organizations andapplicants to invite to the ARI training program. A constructive
relationship between ARI and the graduates’ organizations will
also foster a supportive and cooperative spirit among the wider
ARI community. This may lead to further cooperation in new ways,
such as post-graduate training by ARI and among graduates, andcapacity building of ARI staff members in graduates’ countries,
such as internships in the graduates’ organizations. These are a
few examples of the possible beneﬁts of an improved relationshipbetween ARI and the graduates’ organizations.
While we can think of many positive outcomes from this new
endeavor, we know that it is not easy to build a truly constructive relationship with graduates and their organizations. There are over 1,300
graduates in 57 countries and their activities and natures are diverse.
Likewise, their impressions of ARI are also diverse. However, I don’t
think we can move forward if we stop here and just watch the activities
of ARI graduates calmly as we have been. So, to step forward, we
have started a fundraising campaign to start the Graduate Outreach
Section. We set $100,000 as a target to hire one full time staff member
for three years, and already half of the targeted amount has beenraised. I would like you to join this campaign and help us complete thisnew loop to start circulating ideas and partnerships among graduates,
their organizations and ARI!

s shown below, one of the future visions derived from the
Graduate Impact Study was to connect the realities of the
Graduates of ARI, who live and work all over the world, with ARI in
Japan. We need to re-recognize the graduates and their organizationsas precious agents who are tackling, with the ARI spirit, various
problems and issues in the rural areas of the world. They can give
us meaningful feedback based on their experiences. In order to do
this, we decided to establish a Graduate Outreach section having a
dedicated staff member.

Curriculum

Graduate Outreach
Building strong relations
between ARI and the
Graduates/Organizations

ARI’s Cycle ofLearning and
GrowthRural Leaders

Inﬂuence on
Community/Org

photo: Steven Cutting

Since its establishment, ARI has been using its best to connect
with its graduates all around the world. In the 1970’s we began study
tours for ARI supporters and staff to visit graduates in the ﬁeld,
and in the 1980’s we developed the Training Assistant program tobring graduates back to the campus to further develop themselves
as leaders and pass on their knowledge to participants. We createdthe position of Graduate Outreach Coordinator in conjunction withthe position of Admission's Coordinator and this staff supervises
communication with graduates and the semi-annual publication
Network to all graduates. Graduate Outreach also began actively
requesting assistance from Graduates in recruitment and worked
to link Graduates with potential funding organizations. Graduate
Outreach also developed and maintained a large database of
information on all graduates during this period.
However, a comprehensive impact study involving interviews with
229 graduates revealed that they are looking for an even deeper levelof connection with ARI. Therefore, in addition to the great amount ofenergy and effort already extended in supporting and communicatingwith graduates, ARI wants to continue to build on this foundation andexpand its efforts yet again by having a dedicated staff member head
this section.
With this new section, a complete circle of ARI (Curriculum),
Rural Leaders (Graduates as recipients of the ARI training), andCommunities/Organizations (those who are impacted by the training)is created, which will help circulate people, ideas, and partnerships toachieve an overall betterment of each part.
The signiﬁcance of building a constructive relationship andpartnership with graduates and their organizations all over the worldis not just helpful in the curriculum development, it will also help

Nelumdevi and Lakshman Perera (both of them ‘77 Graduates)
have worked for rural development and disaster relief in Sri
Lanka and East Timor for over 30 years.

5

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6

Before, I believed that only special people went to ARI

for training. I thought I was not valuable enough forthis kind of training. But a�ter 9 months at ARI,I recognized how much I changed.
Before, I could not speak in front of people, but now
I can. Now I can lead people, I can love others, be gentle,
patient, and open, and accept everything as learning
opportunities. ARI learning is not only from class.
Now it is my turn. As I learned and was guided,
I want to teach people. That is my reply to ARI
to show my appreciation.”

Leaders
with HeartThe Rural Leaders
Training Pr ogram 2016
"QSJMUP%FDFNCFS 

Yukiko Ôyanagi,
Associate Director & Curriculum Coordinator
7

TRAINING* nine-month Rural Leaders Training Program, and 23 newn December 2016, the Asian Rural Institute completed its

graduates of 13 nationalities completed their training. We sincerely appreciate those who supported this training program,
both ﬁnancially and spiritually.
This nine-month training was not easy for participants. The
average participant age in 2016 was 41, higher than any previous year. We can imagine that it was very diﬃcult for these mature “students”
to leave their families and organizations to attend training in Japan. Sadly, someparticipants even lost family members during the training. Still they commented,“I am very happy to participate in the ARI training.” “Nine months is too short,”and “ARI training is necessary for the future of my community people.”

Learning based on Key Concepts
Before ARI started its 2016 training
program, staff decided to review ARI’scurriculum design. First, staff reﬂectedon the ARI mission statement once again,
since this is our core philosophy which wealways act upon. After that, we discussed“ARI keywords” to review the Key Conceptsof ARI training. As a result of this discussion,
we decided to have 14 new Key Concepts
under the Three Pillars of ARI training.

The Three Pillars of our training areServant Leadership, Foodlife, and Communityof Learning.
The Key Concepts are: Life of sharing,
Diversity, Personal growth, Spiritual growth,
Empowering the marginalized, Awareness(Mindfulness), Food sovereignty, Living inharmony with nature, The value of rural life, Dignity of labor, Community of learning, Equality,
Independent learning, and Learning by doing.
These concepts are not new for us; thesewords and the philosophy behind them8

guide our ARI daily life and training throughclasses, farm work, practical study, observation trips, presentations, report writing, andeven mealtime conversations. Participants
need to learn, deepen, and discuss theseconcepts until they become part of theirown philosophies. For that reason, at the
beginning of training all staff need to sharethe value of those concepts, understandthem more deeply, and practice them intheir daily activities.

TRAINING

Food Sovereignty and Foodlife
The 2016 ARI Training Handbook provides
this explanation of Food Sovereignty:
Food sovereignty is the right of people
to healthy and culturally appropriate foodproduced through ecologically sound andsustainable methods, and their right to deﬁnetheir own food and agriculture systems. At
ARI, we seek to establish a life of self-relianceusing local resources. We produce as muchof our own food as possible, emphasizing theconnection between life, food, and nature.
Urban people become out of touch with thisconnection. Self-suﬃciency of a community orsociety that leads to a stable and secure life isfound in a life of sharing. Self-suﬃciency is pro-tection against the instability of monoculture,
the exploitation of globalization’s changing
markets, and a tendency to take control overland, undermining local culture. Food security
is one of the most important basic humanrights. It should be considered in relation to
the factors that are threatening it, such as thedangerous side effects of the Green Revolution,
chemical farming, Genetically Modiﬁed
Organisms (GMO), and global trade. (2016 ARI
Training Handbook, A6-7)

To bring about food sovereignty,
one of our Key Concepts, we strive forself-suﬃciency in food, seed, and animal
feed. Most of our participants come to
ARI to learn organic farming in addition

ACHIEVEMENT“The 2016 Participants became— as servant leaders — fully
aware of environmental issues
and the natural cycles.”
0TBNV"SBLBXB"TTPDJBUF%JSFDUPS&EVDBUJPOBM%JSFDUPS'BSN.BOBHFS

9

to leadership. It is easy to imagine that as
grassroots rural leaders, participants needto learn agricultural skills and knowledge
since their target group is often farmers.
But why organic farming? When we practiceorganic farming in Japan, we are concerned
about food safety and sustainability. If weuse chemicals for farming, food can be contaminated and the environment damaged.
However, if we take care of the living soil,
then “the soil becomes richer as we produce
food, and human relationships become more
beautiful.” (2016 ARI Training Handbook, D-1)
Often, those are the reasons why Japaneseorganic farmers practice their farming
without chemicals. But then what about
our participants?
In participants’ countries, which are often
called “developing countries”, farming is themain source of income and employment.
People who are living in the city depend
on farming too. The scale of management
differs from country to country, but many
farmers face a diﬃcult life regardless ofthe size of the farm. Originally, farmers
practiced traditional farming; they did notuse any chemical fertilizers or pesticides.
But through “international aid”, seeds ofhigh-yield varieties were distributed, anduse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides
was promoted. At ﬁrst, those seeds andchemicals were distributed free of charge
by governments or NGOs. Farmers started
to depend on chemicals in their farming.
Over the years, farmers forgot theirtraditional ways of farming, but the support
for purchasing chemicals also stopped. To

TRAINING

Our Curriculum
Total Instruction Hours: 1,971h$MBTTFT
Leadership
Leadership
Servant Leadership
ARI History and Mission
Participatory Learning and Action
Independent Learner
Time Management
Presentation Skills
Facilitation Skills
Proposal Writing
Stress Management
Religion and Rural Life
Report Guidance
Healing Between the Worlds
Development Issues
Environment and Development
Nutrition and Development
Credit Union
Localization
Gender Issues
Human Traﬃcking in Asia andChildren’s Rights
Ashio Copper Mine and Tanaka Shozo
Climate Change Challenge
Alternative Approach of Development
Global Climate Change andInternational Partnership
Nasu Canal and Rural Development
Tomo no Kai Women's Group Activity
Sustainable Agriculture
Concept of Sustainable Agriculture
Organic Farming
Crops and Vegetables
Livestock
Disease Control
Appropriate Technology
Dangers of Chemical Farming
Natural Farming in Tropical Areas
Agroforestry

1SBDUJDBM'JFME4UVEZ
Tomoko Arakawa
Tomoko Arakawa, Yukiko Ôyanagi
Tomoko Arakawa
Tomoko Arakawa, Yukiko Ôyanagi
Yukiko Ôyanagi
Timothy Appau
Yukiko Ôyanagi
Yukiko Ôyanagi
Yukiko Ôyanagi
Joseph Ozawa*
Jonathan McCurley, Timothy Appau
Kathleen Froede
WindEagle*, Kyôko Seki*

Koa Tasaka* (ARI Board Member)
Zacivolu Rhakho
Hôichi EndôYôji Kamata* (NPO Ancient Futures)
Tomoko Arakawa
Machiko Kaida* (C-rights)
Tatsuo Sakahara (NPO Shozo Tanaka University)
Yoshiyuki Nagata* (University of the Sacred Heart)
J.B. Hoover* (AFARI, iLEAP)
J.B. Hoover* (AFARI, iLEAP)
Shuya Tamura*
National and prefecture branches of Tomo no Kai

Crops & Vegetables Emphasis
Bokashi fertilizer making, compost making,collection and utilization of Indigenous
Microorganisms, fermented plant juice, ﬁshamino acid, water-soluble Calcium, watersoluble Calcium and Phosphate, wood vinegar,
charcoal making, rice husk charcoal, seedcollection, seedling nursing using soil blocks,
mushroom cultivatio
Livestock Emphasis
Pigs (artiﬁcial insemination, delivery, castration), Chicken (brooding, hatching), Fish(hatching), livestock health, feed formulation,
fermented feed, animal raising with fermented
ﬂoor
Meat Processing
Sausage and ham making'JFME.BOBHFNFOU"DUJWJUJFT
・Group management of crops and vegetables

ﬁeld and livestock・Foodlife work (Foodlife related activities for

self-suﬃciency)

PFS: Crops & Vegetables Emphasis
PFS: Livestock Emphasis
PFS: Meat Processing

Ardhendu Chatterjee* (DRCSC, ’76 graduate)
Osamu Arakawa
Osamu Arakawa
Gilbert Hoggang, Takashi Ôtani, Timothy Appau
Osamu Arakawa
Ban HyungWook
Koa Tasaka* (ARI Board Member)
Shimpei Murakami* (Natural Farmer)
Masaaki Yamada* (Tokyo University ofAgriculture and Technology)
Reina Tomatsu* (Kinoshi Juku)
Mamoru Kuwabara* (NPO FUDO)
Kin’ichi Haga* (Tozawa village International
Fellowship Association)
Osamu Arakawa, Masanobu Sakurai
Gilbert Hoggang, Takashi Ôtani, Timothy Appau
Takashi Ôtani, Hideo Koide*

Japanese language and culture

Kyôko Ogura*

Alternative Marketing Systems
Biogas workshop
Philosophy of 3-D Farming

The aim of PFS is to acquire practical andtheoretical knowledge of organic agriculture,animal husbandry and food processing* special lecturers

10・Group leadership system

0UIFST
Community work (rice transplanting, Rice
harvesting, Forest management, etc.),
Community Events
Spiritual nurture and guidance (Morning
Gathering, Growth Note, Consultation,
Reﬂection Day, Reﬂection Paper),Oral Presentation, Harvest Thanksgiving
Celebration、International Fellowship Program,Observation Trips, Rural Community Study
Tour, Western Japan, Study Tour, Homestay
Programs, Church Fellowship Programs

TRAINING

maintain the “new” way of farming, farmers
were required to buy pesticides, chemicalfertilizers and seeds. There are problems
with this situation.
First, farmers started to depend on
money. They spent a lot of money to buy
seeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides,
but they do not have good access tomarkets, so they have to rely on middlemen.
Middlemen come to the village, buy at a low
price, take the products to town and thensell at a high price. Farmers do not beneﬁt;
only middlemen beneﬁt. Indonesian graduate Rev. Tigor Sihombing said, “The Bible
says that the hardworking farmer should be
the ﬁrst to receive a share of the crops. But
as a reality, farmers do not receive a shareof the crops. Organic farming is a roadto independence. When farmers employ organic methods, such as composting natural
materials available in their local community,
it frees them from the burden of taking out
loans for fertilizers.”
Another problem was that the danger ofchemical exposure was not communicated.
International aid from Japan, USA, andEurope tended to rely on chemicals. Experts
did not try to learn why pests and disease
occurred; they just brought chemicals fromother countries to superﬁcially treat the
problems. Unfortunately, farmers cannot
read chemical warnings or instructions
since they are written in other languages.
For example, chemicals are often diluted
with water according to the instructions,even up to 1000%. So how do farmers safely
use the chemical if they cannot read the in-structions? Often, they just check the “taste”
and feel how numb their tongues become.
When they apply the chemicals, they do notwear masks or protective clothing. DDT,
which has been forbidden in Japan since1971, is still used in developing countries.
Many times, the DDT that was brought toexterminate mosquitoes for malaria control
was instead used by farmers in their ﬁelds
and paddies.
I have heard stories from participants:“Some people died from eating chemicallycoated corn. The seed grains have adisinfectant coating, but the corn was not
utilized as seed; it was sold as food in themarket instead.” “In my country, suddenly
the number of people with kidney disease
increased.” “Oh, in my community, cancer
increased. I lost my father, brother andeven husband to cancer.”
In Japan, we have strong regulations
that forbid people from pouring highichthyotoxic (ﬁsh-killing) chemicals into theriver. But in some participants’ countries,
people spray such chemicals in the riverintentionally, so that ﬁsh die and it is easy
to collect the dead ﬁsh. Those ﬁsh are thensold in the market or eaten at home. Thatis the background for why we teach thedanger of chemicals in ARI. After the class,one Myanmar participant said to me, “Ihave to call my father tonight. He always
uses chemical for ﬁshing. Nobody tells us it
is dangerous.”
In short, participants seek to change fromchemical farming to organic farming toaddress health and environmental concerns,

11

exploitation, increased farming costs, andto eradicate poverty. Furthermore, it isalso important to improve the soil whichis damaged by extensive use of chemicals
and to grow crops more resilient to climatechange. In other words, ARI believes
that producing healthy food, using local
resources and bringing back healthy soil are
key to eradicating poverty and achieving
food sovereignty.

To seek personal growththrough self-awareness.
It is important to acquire new knowledge
and skills in class, but it is also important tosee one’s inner self and grow personally andspiritually. We emphasized self-reﬂection
even more this year. We changed
the method of reﬂection, exercisingself-evaluation by means of a tool calleda “rubric”. First, participants think about
the qualities of a good leader, for example
listening skills, patience, and communication
skills. Next, they write down a concrete
practice for each quality (“I can improve myunderstanding by asking good questions.”“Taking time before reacting to issues.” “Listening to others’ opinions.” etc.). Then threetimes during the training period they evaluated how much they understood and utilizedeach practice. Based on the self-evaluation,
consultant staff reﬂected together with eachparticipant and gave feedback.
This is our ﬁrst trial of this process at ARI
and there is still room for improvement, but
the practice did help participants grow andTRAINING

learn. In previous years, we had workshops
for participants to think about the qualities
that make a good leader, but mostparticipants were not able to translate thesequalities into concrete actions. With this new
rubric, they have to reﬂect on whether they
practice a behavior or not. This reﬂection is
not an evaluation from others; instead participants evaluate themselves. Through sucha process, some participants dramaticallychanged. They started to listen to others’
opinions that were different from their own,
to not avoid but engage in conﬂict in thegroup, to understand different cultures, andto learn from failure. The practices were noteasy for them, but participants developed
their leadership abilities through thosestruggles.
Within the framework of the Three
Pillars, participants explored 40 topics inclassroom sessions, practiced 583 hours offarm work and practical studies, spent 184
hours in activities for spiritual and personal
growth, and visited 12 prefectures for 31
days. All together their training totaled
1,971 curriculum-hours in nine months, or
252 days. The participants understand that
all of this learning is not for themselves
but for their communities. It was not easy
for them to keep a high level of motivation
to continue studying, when they wereworrying about their family or sponsoringorganization back home.
Once I asked participants what “learning”
meant to them. One participant answered,“I learned to become the instrument of God.

ACHIEVEMENT"CSBIBN#SFTF

1BSUJDJQBOU (IBOB"I was so surprised by the openness ofJapanese people. When we went on
observation trips, farmers and others
shared with us many things which
they had learned from their experience.
It is amazing for me.
I also learned about leadership from the ARI sta�f.
They are very approachable, even the director and othersta�f members. From this experience, I learned that I
have to share my learning to people, too. A good nameis better than richness. We should not just ask for money.
I will start from the grassroot."

Knowledge is not for me, but to help people.”
Another answered, “The more I learn, themore I recognize how much I do not know.
The more I learn, the more I came to knowthat farmers are great and I respect them.”
Participants leave ARI as “graduates”,
but their learning will continue. We often
told them that they are going to learn fromfarmers after they go back to their commu-

12

nities. And we believe that they are goingto do so because they are the grassroots
rural leaders who know the meaning of ourtraining, who have the attitude to serve
people, and who love their own community.
May God protect each one of these newgraduates. I hope their dreams will cometrue.

Foodlife at ARI
Osamu Arakawa, Associate Director & Educational Director(Farm Manager)

The practice of organic farming —Let’s create an environment for improved biodiversity
When we weed ARI’s paddy ﬁelds, we can ﬁnd living things such as frogs, dragon ﬂies, spiders,water stick insects, giant water bugs and so on. The varieties and number of living things haveincreased because of organic farming. One month after transplanting rice seedlings, duckweeds covered the surface of the water in several paddy ﬁelds. This year we found a lot of
ibises as well.
If we have a balanced ecosystem, we will never face an abnormal outbreak of one kind of
insect. Insects and their natural enemies will remain in balance in the food chain.
In August, the International Conference for Enhancing Biodiversity in Agriculture was heldin Oyama city in the southern part of Tochigi Prefecture. A staff member and training assistantfrom ARI also shared their experience of eco-conscious agriculture in their countries, andlearned from Oyama city’s program to enhance the biodiverse environment and to promotelocal industry and environmentally-friendly agriculture.
However, in contrast to Oyama, in the northern part of Tochigi prefecture where ARI is
located, the Japan Agricultural Cooperative applies pesticides to paddy ﬁelds by helicopter.

13

FOODLIFE

We are afraid of the health damage causedby pesticides that contain neonicotinoides.
Pesticides
containing
neonicotinoides
are systemic pesticides that work on the
nervous system of insects. They havecompound toxicity; if we use them withother pesticides, their toxicity is multiplied
hundreds to thousands of times. In humans,
they penetrate the brain easily and remain
there. At ARI, we are managing our farmwithout pesticide spraying and have seen an
increase in biodiversity. Our organic farming
practices help the ecosystem and diversity.
My dream is to work together with farmers, citizens, local government and NPOs
and so on in this northern part of Tochigi,
to promote organic farming by creating anenvironment for enhancing biodiversity inagriculture, just as was done in Oyama cityin the southern part of Tochigi prefecture.
Previously, ARI grew rice in rented paddy
ﬁelds. However, this year we purchased ourown paddy ﬁelds. We are now trying to diga well for irrigation. If we can get enoughwater from the well, we may be able tocreate a winter-ﬂooded rice paddy.

Are safe mushrooms possible?
After the Great East Japan Earthquake ofMarch 11, 2011, all vegetables and cereal
crops harvested in ARI were checked forradiation levels (cesium) before they weretaken to the ARI kitchen. The ARI standard is37bq/kg (becquerels per kilogram) of cesium
and all ARI food must be under this. The
Japanese government’s standard is 100bq.

Almost all crops were safe for consumption,
however, mushrooms which were grownat the ARI natural forest on logs, couldn’t
be eaten because the radiation level was
too high. Still today, we cannot eat the ARI
naturally grown mushrooms.
Mushrooms contain rich dietary ﬁber
and minerals and are good for health.
Many ARI community members really wantto have safe and nutritious mushrooms.
Therefore, in 2016 the Crops & Vegetablesection started a mushroom project using
the sawdust substrate cultivation method.
It is not diﬃcult. However, some parts ofthe process are slightly complicated. First,
you have to isolate mycelium from the
fresh mushroom body under a germ-freeenvironment and propagate it as pureculture. Then we put it into polypropylenebags ﬁlled with sterilized sawdust. Aftermycelium grows throughout the sawdust
substrate, it will develop mushrooms.
We made some sawdust substrates andinoculated mycelium collected from fresh
oyster mushrooms (pleurotus osteatus).
However, mushrooms were not able to growin those plastic bags. Oyster mushrooms
require a temperature above 20 degrees
Celsius; however, the temperature in thewinter season at ARI was much lower thanthat. In 2017, we would like to continue thisproject to cultivate oyster mushrooms in thesummer time.
The full process of mushroom cultivation
was demonstrated to all 2016 participants.
Basically,
cultivation
using
sawdustsubstrates system is not hard work and14

everyone can produce good quality mushrooms if the temperature and humidity at
the growing stage can be controlled. The
most important process is the pure cultivation of mycelium under aseptic conditions.
If contaminated with germs, cultivation will
fail.
The mushroom cultivation project in2016 was a no-budget trial, so we neitherpurchased equipment for sterile conditions
nor used a microbiological safety cabinet,
autoclave, and incubator. However, if
the community’s demand for mushroom
consumption grows, it is important that ARI
purchase this equipment.

Find the right pig
We have heard from many of our customers
that our pork is very tasty and tender. At
ARI we usually buy our sows and artiﬁciallyinseminate them to produce the pigs we
consume and sell. Considering the training
program, it is actually best to have a live
boar for natural mating, but the number ofsows at ARI is too small (5) and managing aboar would be too diﬃcult a task.
Our mother pigs are a combination of
2 breeds, Landrace and Large White. The
father is the Duroc breed. We believe themost tasty pork is from pigs with these 3
breeds. Sows can reproduce well for about
2-3 years and buying the next generation
can be expensive. In order to reduce thecosts of pig production, we decided to raise
the breed of sow that is best. We boughta pure Landrace sow and inseminated her

FOODLIFE

New farm machines for livestock section

with a Large White. After these piglets grow, we will select some of
the females to be our new sows. They will be artiﬁcially inseminatedwith a Duroc. The result will be the preferred combination of 3 breeds
for consumption.
With this project we can now raise our own sows without having
to buy them. This project has contributed to the training program byshowing participants that they too can plan their livestock production
to ﬁt their needs.

For livestock feed we had been carrying out ﬁeld cultivation using asmall tractor and power tiller. Each of these machines was shared between the livestock and crops & vegetables sections, so managing thetiming of usage on any given day was diﬃcult during peak farming
seasons. So, this April we introduced a new machine exclusively forthe livestock section. With this machine, the section could effectively
cultivate and plow its allotted ﬁelds.

Free-grazing goats

ACHIEVEMENT

During the summer, we used to secure our goats with ropes andlet them graze between the ﬁelds where they would eat weeds.
But moving them to the right place proved to be time-consuming
for us, and stressful for the animals. They also escaped sometimes
and mated against our planning, so we decided to create a grazing
place for the goats. For this, the participants of the goat and ﬁshgroup played a central role right from the planning stage. They
strengthened their union as a group through mutual learning andsharing of experiences, and completed the project just a few days
before the graduation ceremony. All community members celebrated
the completion with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Renovation of thegoat pen was going on at the same time, and we hope that thesefruits of the participants’ hard work will be great learning opportunity
for future participants and staff members. We express our heartfelt
gratitude to Mr. Ueda of Wind Family Farm for providing us fence
posts for the grazing ground and the Pearl City Community Church of
Hawaii for their great support for these projects.
The goat varieties at ARI are called Saanen and Shiba Native. Theirmating season is in autumn, but as we did not have a male goatlarge enough for our females, we borrowed a male Nubian goat inMarch. The Nubian is an African variety for milk production. The milk
is rich in butterfat, so that it has started to become popular amongcheese makers in Japan. ARI might be able to create goat cheese in
the future… look forward to it!

Zacivolu Rhakho

Meal Service Coordinator

Setting personal goals foreach core member of the meal
service section was a big
discovery for me this year. It not only helped us
keep our focus and remember why we are here,
but it applied to personal growth as well.
We also achieved 100% transparency in the
kitchen’s ﬁnancial management amongst thecore members. I strongly believe that a true
leader needs to be transparent in order to build
a trusting relationship with others.

Diseases not allowed

Yearly food consumption at ARI

Livestock keeping is always concerned about not contracting
infectious diseases. We believe that our rearing methods are lessstressful for the animals, and that they are strong against disease,
but if an infection entered our campus we would not only haveto dispose of our entire stock, it would also severely impact ourneighboring livestock farmers. Restarting livestock would probably
be diﬃcult. Perfect disease prevention, however, is extremely hardto achieve due to various limitations. We continue practices such as
poultry vaccination, disinfecting boots before entering animal pens,and spraying slaked lime to disinfect pens after shipping animals.
We have crafted infection precaution guidelines and implemented
prevention measures within a feasible range while at the same time
maintaining ideas of circulatory agriculture such as turning animal
waste and manure into compost, and food waste into fermented
feed. This year in particular, there was frequent news about bird ﬂu
occurrence, so we were forced to install a ﬁner bird-prooﬁng net
on top of the usual metal mesh of our bird houses so wild birds andsmall animals would not enter.

The meal service section estimates the yearly number of meals
needed in ARI’s Koinonia Hall as 45,000. To meet this demand,the section plans closely with the farm staff who provide therequired labour, material, land and other resources, andensures the community’s nutritional balance and special needs(such as vegetarian and halal meals) are met.

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“ARI at its Best,” Supported by Coaching
In 2016, ARI began a new venture: to provide learning
opportunities for all staff about a communication methodology
called coaching. A Kick-off workshop, held February 3, 2016,
was offered to develop skills and to empower ARI’s staff team
to work together even better.

At the start of the workshop, staff members re-visited ARI’s Mission and Key
Concepts. This enabled them to remember
the joy and pride of working at ARI.
We followed this by practicing fundamental coaching skills such as Listening, Asking
Powerful Questions, Acknowledgment, andRequesting. We also touched upon theimportance of a coach being able to envisionthat “coachees” are way bigger than what
they think they are and able to experiencea full range of emotion; and the need for
creating a space that is safe for “coachees”
to share whatever is happening in the
moment.
Finally, the staff members faced thetrue facts of ARI. Earnest discussions were
held about such questions as: How can weunderstand each other with such diverse
countries, cultural values and religions?;
How can we collaborate more on ARI’s organizational and managerial challenges?; andHow can we get the world to understand
ARI better?
Feedback from the workshop members
about the training was as follows: “thequality of consultation has increased”, “I
am now able to listen to participants’ pain
without getting involved too much, yet withhealthy boundaries.”, “I love the ARI staff
more than ever.”
ARI’s motto “That We May Live Together”
shares the same vision of what coaching
aims to do. It is a world in which people
can live just the way they are, and empowereach other with kindness and generosity. It
is a world in which you can utilize your natural gift to serve the common good. Now
that ARI is being supported by coachingpractices: What is possible for ARI at its
best?

COMMENT

Throughout the year of working together with ARI sta�fmembers, each of the coaching sessions had been ﬁlled withnew learning and discovery. It probably was myself who
learned the most as a trainer. One unforgettable episodehappened the very ﬁrst day of the coaching program. I had
asked the members: “What is listening?” One of the members
answered straight back to me, saying “listening is healing.” I
have never heard such an answer express the profound meaning of “listening” in my 15 years of coaching training experience. It was also the very moment of ARI winning my heart.
During the coaching training sessions, the conversation
among the members was supported by the members’ rich life
experience and daily sincere relationship with participants.
Their “being” as coaches exceeded their “doing” of tools andskills. Also each of the “system coaching sessions” which is the
cutting edge coaching methodology to empower the team as an
ecosystem, was also memorable. It was moving to witness how
the members acknowledged each other’s gi�ts and talents, andshowed their courage and commitment to face current challenges, and to discuss creatively about the future of ARI.
I truly wish the coaching skills will continue to support andempower ARI sta�f members to work even deeper with theparticipants, and to keep walking the talkof their servant leadership. May the ARI,
as a whole, continue to work together as“one community” with pride and joy, andkeep inspiring the world.
:VSJ.PSJLBXBCoaches

1SPGFTTJPOBM$PBDI

Yuri Morikawa, Kyôko Seki, Fuyufu Satô16

Building a
Network of Support
Making Connections with
Our Supporters and Aiming forEnhanced Domestic Fundraising
Hiromi Satô, Domestic Business (Sales & PR)T

he scope of our overall mission is to invite participants fromagricultural communities throughout Asia and Africa and train them
to become agricultural leaders of their own communities. We have an estimated annual budget of 130 million yen. The donations that we receive
truly are the driving force of our activities. While our primary source ofincome comes from contributions or scholarship support from individuals
and groups both inside and outside of Japan, the total annual amount of scholarship support
granted by funding bodies has been declining in recent years.
While maintaining our connections with such support groups, we must also make proactive
efforts to seek new sources of income. To this end, the Domestic Fundraising Department isengaged in a variety of activities. Several such areas that we are pursuing as sources of generating new income include holding events both on and off campus, obtaining lodging revenue
from overnight visitors, selling surplus agricultural products, and sponsoring educational
opportunities. Income from such activities amounts to about 20% of our total income. As
these fundraising activities show, we do not solely rely on your generous contributions, butalso proactively work to create a stable source of self-generated revenue. This, we believe, isan important aspect of sound school management.
In 2016 we welcomed two new staff members who will be primarily engaged in fundraising
activities. Through the addition of these staff members we continue to emphasize the importance of creating opportunities to meet with our donors, whether new or old, individual ororganization. Furthermore, with the new assignment of an existing staff member to head up
ARI Ecumenical Relations, which serves as our point of contact for overseas funding organizations and supporters, we are pursuing a long-term vision of deepening our relationships withboth domestic and international supporters. Truly, education and fundraising are the twowheels on which ARI runs.
All of our staff members and volunteers work together with the heartfelt wish that ourparticipants will ﬂourish as leaders of service ministries in their local communities. It is ourgreat pleasure to welcome visitors to ARI, whether long-time supporters or those who havejust recently learned about our school and our mission and activities. We hope that you will
join us for a meal, tour of our campus, or participate in our activities. We believe that byexperiencing what we do at ARI, you will come to embrace our vision and decide that “I want
to be a person who contributes to the grassroots development of agricultural communities
around the world. I want to support ARI!”

17

NETWORK

Training Assistant Father Macdonald Banda greets
members of Tokyo’s St. Andrew Church which supports ARI.

The Growth of ARI Sunday

Our concrete activities
ARI’s operations are supported by more than a thousand groups andindividuals. The Domestic Business section serves as the reception
point at which the encouragement and spirit of supporters reach us
in the form of donations, and we cherish the direct communication
with guests, working visitors, study campers and the customers whocome to buy our farm products.
When given the chance to sell farm products outside, e.g. atbazaars, we made every effort of telling the stories behind our products and our activities directly according to each customer’s interest,and especially to people who did not know about ARI. We also pushed
further with public relations activities, by renewing the ARI homepage
and by appealing for more coverage in the press and local listingmagazines, on top of releasing four supporter bulletins. Throughout
2016 (as in previous years), we were blessed with opportunities ofvisiting many churches and schools, where we not only talked about
ARI, but also about the social environment our participants are placedin, as well as their learning goals and religious faith. This was met
with sympathy and support. By gaining insights outside television or
the internet about the issues happening in the participants’ countries,
supporters gained plenty of food for thought.
Concerts and workshops targeting the local community were heldat ARI’s facilities and the Nasu Seminar House, to which many ﬁrst
time guests came. We were also able to increase opportunities ofmaking ARI a school for the general public. We hosted seminars andclubs from various universities coming to study organic agriculture
and international cooperation, as well as offering supplementarytraining for the Japan International Cooperation Agency’s overseas
volunteers before their dispatching abroad. Visitors who stayed forabout a week to experience farm work and our daily life told us that,on the whole, they were very satisﬁed with what they received during
their visit to ARI.

Jonathan McCurley, Community Life CoordinatorAjoyful tradition of over ﬁfty years at ARI is when our Community Life presents an ARI Sunday orientation with churches
throughout the Kantô area. It is a tradition that has existed since thebeginning of the Rural Leaders Training Program back to the daysof Tsurukawa. It is wonderful that it is still going strong — and evengrowing. The idea itself has its foundations in Asia Sunday, a time
for the Japanese church to remember their history with their Asian
Christian brethren. Today, it continues in that vein; it reminds us of
the need to seek the Kingdom of God together as Christians, beyond
national boundaries and cultural identities. It is a chance to encourage our Christian brethren in Japan, as Christians are a minority
within Japan and can often feel different or ostracized within themainstream culture. As the ARI community goes to worship and bewith the churches, we encourage the believers, showing that there
are many followers of Christ around the world; Japanese Christians
are not alone, and they follow the same Jesus that people in the restof Asia, the Paciﬁc, Africa, Europe, and the Americas follow.
This is a special time when our community leaves the ARI campus
and embraces local churches. We go to share what we see God
doing in our own lives and through ARI; we go
to fellowship, and to learn. We were blessed thispast year to have over 25 invitations to speak inchurches. We were welcomed to worship, had
a Q&A time, were happily well-fed, and enjoyeda wonderful time of koinonia with the people. It
always makes me excited to facilitate the logistics
of ARI Sunday again each year. We pray that thisevent will continue to grow and be an encouraging
point of contact for Christians throughout Japan.

18

NETWORK

Kathy Froede, Ecumenical Relations

Overseas Supporters

A

RI values our supporters, partners, longtime friends and new
friends from all over the world. Our global supporters network
began more than 40 years ago with ARI founder Dr. Takami, whogathered support from his colleagues and friends from overseas andwithin Japan. That network continues today with partners and friends who come alongside us
to achieve our mission. We value these relationships, whether they are 40 years or a few
months long! I’d like to share some of our highlights from 2016.

Visit by the deVries couple
We had an unexpected and heartfelt visitby the niece of Ms. Gretchen deVries,
long-time missionary and former directorof ARI. Gretchen-san, as she was known by
all, worked with ARI for more than 20 years.
Mary Ann deVries and husband Tom Schlife
stayed at ARI for several days, meeting
former staff and volunteers who worked
with Gretchen-san. Mary Ann said that she
was pleased to hear stories about one of her
favorite aunts. “My family felt a special pridein Aunt Gretchen's work with Dr. Takami inbringing the dream of ARI into reality. Manyof my family members visited, but I wasnever able to come until now. I'm so happy to
ﬁnally have a glimpse of her beloved ARI andto see the vitality of the school today.”Young people at ARI
Summertime brings many visitors to ARI,
and we were blessed by several church
mission groups. These groups often jumpright into the daily schedule. When I asked

about their experience at ARI, one mission
trip coordinator said, “We learned a new
deﬁnition of mission. It is not just about
delivering the ‘good news’; it is also aboutbroadening our perspective to be able tosee diversity and think outside of our box.
We learned that people who experiencetransformation can then transform otherpeople. Our multi-generational group learned
that this was a starting point to communicate
with each other beyond generations, ethnicity
and cultural differences.”
ARI’s community and transformative
atmosphere resonates with volunteers andinterns alike. We were fortunate to receive
long-term volunteers from Evangelical Missionin Solidarity Youth Volunteers Programme,
Brethren Volunteer Service, United Methodist
Church Young Adult Ministries and Volunteers
in Mission, and The Episcopal Church Young
Adult Service Corps. Summer interns werefrom St. Olaf College in Minnesota and Wellesley College in Boston. As with our Participants,
these new community members are pulledaway from what is familiar and put in a place

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The deVries couple joining with the community in thanksgiving for the meal

19very different from their own, a ‘community’with busyness, people and work thatchallenges their comfort zones and expands
their outlook of the world and themselves.
A summer intern said: "Before coming to
ARI, my deﬁnition of sustainability was very
narrow and limited to the characteristic of
not removing resources faster than they
could be replenished. After conversing withparticipants and working on the farms at
ARI, I realized that for processes to be truly
sustainable, they must also be economicallyfeasible and timely viable — two qualities thatwere especially important to rural leadersfrom poor and remote places.”

Supporters who share our vision
The focus of one of our supporters is leadership development. They support partners
who come from marginalized communities,
challenge and oppression. The program
particularly hopes to support those whose
opportunities are otherwise extremely
limited and who have a vision and commitment to working with communities in need of
positive,
empoweringtransformation,
focusing on poverty elimination, global
health, and leadership development. ARI, too,focuses on these criteria when seeking
participants for our training program.
Another partner believes that together we
can listen, learn and deepen our understanding of one another. This understanding often
leads to caring for each other and working
together to address the root causes ofpoverty and hunger, ﬁght malaria and HIV/
AIDS, and build communities that coexist inpeace, without exclusion or division. Eachyear ARI strives to build understanding
among a diverse group of participants.
Through the curriculum, ARI gives Participants the tools to address hunger andpoverty, plus community development andleadership skills to build stronger, more
resilient communities.
As we share goals with our partners, we
also share challenges. One challenge is thatsome of our most loyal scholarship partners
have been forced to cut back on theirprograms, which in turn affects ARI. We
continue to seek new partners to help withour critical program of creating an environmentally healthy, just and peaceful world.

NETWORK

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Supporters"MEFSTHBUF6OJUFE.FUIPEJTU$IVSDI 1BMP"MUP $""NB[PO4NJMF"NFSJQSJTF'JOBODJBM$PSEJMMFSB(SFFO/FUXPSL 1IJMJQQJOFT$PSUMBOE6OJUFE$IVSDIPG$ISJTU $PSUMBOE /&%PWFS$POHSFHBUJPOBM$IVSDI 8FTUMBLF 0)&VDMJE4QSJOH$P
&WBOHFMJDBM-VUIFSBO$IVSDIJO"NFSJDB'JSTU$POHSFHBUJPOBM$IVSDI#SBOGPSE 6$$ #SBOGPSE $5'JSTU$POHSFHBUJPOBM$IVSDIJO"NIFSTU6$$ "NIFSTU ."'SJFOETIJQ$ISJTUJBO3FGPSNFE$IVSDI #ZSPO$FOUFS .*(&'PVOEBUJPO(JWJOH"TTJTUBOU*OD(PPE4IFQIFSE&QJTDPQBM$IVSDI 8BJMVLV )*(PPHMF.BUDIJOH(JGUT1SPHSBN 1SJODFUPO /:(SBDF1SFTCZUFSJBO$IVSDI ,FOEBMM1BSL /+)BSSJT6OJUFE.FUIPEJTU$IVSDI )POPMVMV )*)JDLNBO1SFTCZUFSJBO$IVSDI )JDLNBO /&+BWBOBOE/FWB$PSM'BNJMZ'PVOEBUJPO+VTU(JWF.FSDL.FUIPEJTU$IVSDIJO#SJUBJO
1FBSM$JUZ$PNNVOJUZ$IVSDI 1FBSM$JUZ )*
4IBMPN6OJUFE$IVSDIPG$ISJTU /FX)BWFO $5
4U+BNFT5ISJGU4IPQ ,FFOF /)
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5IF&QJTDPQBM$IVSDIPG4U.BSUJO %BWJT $"
5IF6OJUFE$IVSDIPG$BOBEB
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6OJUFE.FUIPEJTU$PNNJUUFFPO3FMJFG
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6OJUFE$IVSDIPG%PSTFUBOE&BTU3VQFSU %PSTFU 75
6OJUFE.FUIPEJTU$IVSDIPG-PT"MUPT -PT"MUPT $"
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8FTU.JEEMF4DIPPM (SFFOXPPE7JMMBHF $0JONFNPSZPG3PCFSU1FUFSTPO

All gifts that are not designated for scholarship,disaster reconstruction, or research are received as

Volunteer Support
Organizations

general donations and help to support tuition andother costs of the ARI Rural Leaders Training
Program.
A list of individuals, congregations and other&WBOHFMJDBM.JTTJPOJO4PMJEBSJUZ$IVSDIPGUIF#SFUIFSBO
6OJUFE.FUIPEJTU$IVSDI
5IF&QJTDPQBM$IVSDI
4U0MBG$PMMFHF
8FMMFTMFZ$PMMFHF

21

organizations in Japan who donated toward ARI’s
Rural Leaders Training Program during ﬁscal 2016
can be found in the Japanese version of the 2016
Annual Report and Ajia no Tsuchi, our Japanese
language newsletter.

Finances

Statement of Financial Position

Kaori Sakuma-Vero, General Manager

as of 2017/3/31(US $)*

I

express my sincere gratitude for all of your support for the
Asian Rural Institute.

March 31, 2016

March 31, 2017

Fixed Assets
Property
Special Assets
Third designated special asset
Retirement fund
Building Repair endowment
Scholarship endowment
Other Assets
Deposit
Scholarship fund
Building Repair fundTelephone rights
OthersCurrent Assets
Cash & savings
Stock (livestock, rice, etc.)
Sales items
Securities / shares
Accounts receivable
Other

8,730,738
7,827,439
790,921640,390
113,61336,9180
112,377623
108,978
0
1,422
1,355
725,972
633,491
3,721
20,68822,322
34,965
10,7859,200,836
8,174,418
735,354
0
95,732
0639,623
291,063623
273,686
13,9781,422
1,355
681,337
272,668
0
16,212
341,22246,946
4,289

Total Assets

9,456,710

9,882,173

Fixed Liabilities
Long term loans
School bonds
Retirement fund reserve
Reconstruction project reserve*
Current Liabilities
Short term loans
School bonds
Accounts payable
Consumer tax payable
Other

965,068
506,508
86,207
105,971
266,382
1,047,804
602,949
243,754
27,278
3,374
170,448

1,270,863
591,483
277,093
79,581
322,706
928,519559,992
61,664
100,608
3,004
203,252

Total Liabilities

2,012,872

2,199,383

Net assets
Endowment account #1
Endowment account #3
Endowment account #4
Total Net Assets
Accumulated gain & loss

9,787,389
640,390
96,763
10,524,541(3,080,703)

9,711,845
30,0960
9,741,941(2,059,150)

Total Liabilities and Net Assets

9,456,710

9,882,173

AssetsBalance Sheet
As of the end of ﬁscal 2016 (March 31, 2017), ARI’s total assets
were $ 9,456,710, showing a decrease of $ 35,000 from 2015.
This decrease is largely due to the depreciation of buildings andﬁxed assets. ARI was able to decrease liabilities by $ 176,000,
half of which was due to the redemption of school bonds andrepayment of long-term loans.
The accounting standards for school bodies have been revised,obligating schools to deposit the equivalent of one month’s
expenditures. $ 96,763 have been placed into the Endowment
Account #4. $ 639,624, which has been reserved as a scholarshipspeciﬁc special asset, has been placed into Endowment Account#3. Because of these allotments, endowments increased by about$ 783,000.

Proﬁt and Loss
In terms of operating revenue, while scholarship income fromoverseas has decreased by $ 88,000, domestic institutional donations increased by $ 57,000. Overall, the decrease of scholarships
and fees totaled $ 44,000. As in previous years, revenue fromassociated businesses remained stable at about $220,000, beinga stable source of income.
Operating expenses were inﬂated due to over $ 351,800 of
depreciation and incorporating $ 782,900 of endowment money.
This led to an expenditure surplus of $ 1,021,555. However, since
we were able to implement the required measures following
the revised accounting standards for educational bodies, ourﬁnancial status was brought into compliance.
Although ARI faces ongoing ﬁnancial challenges, by paying
attention to expenditure control and through working within thelimited resources of personnel and money, we are doing our best
to strengthen our ﬁnancial status and fulﬁll our mission.

Liabilities and Net Assets

Auditors’ Statement
The above duly audited ﬁnancial statements have been
prepared by the Fujinuma Tax and Accounting Service,
Inc, and approved by the ARI auditors, Mr. Ôkubo and
Mr. Murata. All the documents were properly kept andthere were no irregularities.
May 10, 2017
Auditor: Tomohiro Ôkubo

Auditor: Sakae Murata* Exchange rate of US$1=JPY113.68 is used totranslate Japanese yen based ﬁnancial statements.

22

Statement of Financial Activities
2016/4/1 〜 2017/3/31

Donation categories(US $)

Operating Revenue
Operating income
Scholarships and Fees (1)TuitionEntrance fee
Contributions for board
Contributions for lodging
Contributions for transportation
Domestic institutional donation
Domestic individual donation
Overseas institutional donation
Fees for issuing certiﬁcate
Donations
General (2)Donation in kindSpecial donations
Grants for special projects
Sales and Special Services (3)Miscellaneous revenue
Publication
Accomodation user fees
Other Miscellaneous revenue
Interest & dividends
Non operating income
Special income
Gain (loss) from sale of assets
Total Operating Activities Revenue

2016 Budget

2016 Actual2017 Budget

Total operating expenses
Incorporation into endowment
account (6)Net operating gain (loss)
Beginning balanceEnding balance

SpecialDonations$ 117,523

General Donations$ 336,673

418,107
8,867
2,507
2,745
2,745
0
161,049
221,886
18,30997411,196377,780
033,41725,371
211,530
56,668030,27826,390440

380,223
11,025
589
3,951
3,712
0
160,679
192,0828,185
176
454,196229,301
107,372
117,523
28,826
217,577
63,642039,31024,332
662

289,446
39,857
4,303
2,525
2,525
8,797
145,215
71,473
14,752457
548,581459,6240
88,957
29,236
234,551
72,766
4,398
41,977
26,390440

18,344

17,425

0

911,439927,063

940,486

624,232
244,463595,715
30,788346,092
0617,985
214,554545,9090355,0240682,226
257,211569,5650348,396
0

8,920

9,435

14,8710

13,7990(14,075)(345,652)(2,059,155)(2,404,807)(782,602)(1,021,556)(2,059,155)(3,080,711)

0(348,396)(3,080,711)(3,429,107)

Expenses
Operating expenses (4)Personnel (5)Education and Research
General and administrative
Disaster recovery
Depreciation allowance
Sales costs
Nonoperating revenues (expenses)
Investment income
Special expenses
Gain (loss) from sale of assets

Total US$ 454,196(1) Tuition and fee are paid only by Japanese participants.
(2) Includes US$ 65,579 general donation received from AFARI. →double check the amount(3) Revenues derived from organizing seminars and sales of farm products and folk-art crafts.
(4) For details, see “Operating expenses in detail.”(5) Does not include salaries paid by other church organizations for one staff member.
(6) $ 75,543 placed into endowment account #1, $ 610,295 into #3, $ 96,762 into #4.

23

Domesticխ
$ 229,301
Overseas$ 107,372

Operating expenses in detail
Personnel
Faculty
Staff and other personnel
Education and Research
Supplies expenses
Utilities
Student stipends
Study tours
Agricultural training costs
Travel: domestic for students
Travel: intl students
Course materials
Research
Dormitory expenses
MedicalStaff training
Oﬃce supplies
Membership fees
Alumni association support
Project expenses
Special lectures
Vehicle expenses
Miscellaneous expenses
Sales costs
Administration
Oﬃce supplies
Utilities
Transporation for staff
Fund raising
Vehicle fuelWelfare expenses
Communication
General and administrative
Publications
Vehicle maintenance
General maintenanceInsurance
Rental expenses
Taxed & public dues
Membership fees
Conferences
Commission fees
Cost for income generation
activities
Special events
Public relations
Miscellaneous expenses
Depreciation allowance
Total operating expenses

617,985
165,904
452,081214,554
1,593
14,80842,26018,70053,185873
44,628
1,273
4,932
1,377
4,403
4,296
3,863
646
506
0
6,668
10,54500524,5442,458
14,80812,483
17,760
9,266
1,919
4,869
32,346
3,357
13,253
5,046
8,099
8,646
7,458
1,123
3,014
17,91821,365
325
257
5,114
355,023
1,357,079

QIPUP)³JDIJ&OE³

Fifteen years ofFundraising in theTokyo area
Hôichi Endô,Director of Financial Development

Endô (3rd from the right) visited many graduates in Southeast Asia.
The photo shows his visit to Myanmar during a 1997 research trip where
he met the YMCA’s Saw Melvin Eway (’94 graduate, 2nd from the right).

T

he Asian Rural Institute invites about 30 participants from some
15 developing countries to participate in its training course eachyear. However, ARI does not ask the participants to pay the cost of
their training. In fact, ARI has to fundraise at least 100 million yen
domestically and from overseas, as it needs 130 million yen to cover
the operational costs for the training course each year.
In 2002, ARI inaugurated the Metro Area oﬃce to raise the necessary funds in the Tokyo area and assigned me to take charge of it.
After some trial and error, I began to visit all the Christian churches,church-related organizations, foundations and Christian schools that
had supported ARI in the past, even with only a single donation. I
conveyed our appreciation and reported on our projects. After doing
this for a couple of years, I had gained valuable information and newsources of donations.
My records show that I visited 110 United Church of Christ in Japan
churches in Tokyo alone; including neighboring prefectures, it was
nearly 200. I also visited as many Evangelical Lutheran, Episcopal,
Catholic and other churches as possible. As a result of these visits
and meetings, the churches began to invite our participants to theirservices and support us; Catholic societies and foundations began
to provide scholarships; Rotary and Lions clubs began to help our
projects and scholarships, and so on.
I built strong partnerships with them year by year.
Mission schools are also important partners. International Catholicsocieties or Japan-based NGOs are good sources of recommendations
for future participants. Moreover, many donations-in-kind likemini-bus or wagon-type vehicles, chairs, desks and even a piano for
the Koinonia House or the classroom, are outcomes of these visits andmeetings.

ARI’s fundraising program is one of the ways in which ARI shares
our mission and invites organizations to be partners in creatinga peaceful world where we may live together. In order to share
our mission with our partners, we must ﬁrst create good personal
relationships so that they understand and support what we aretrying to achieve. There is no other way but to keep going, step bystep, and continue to be courteous and sincere in order to help
achieve our goal.

Endô resigned as Finance Oﬃcer in March 2017. His role as Vice Chairof the Board continues.

“The spirit of serving people is what unites the
ARI sta�f despite di�ferent interests or theology.
Every small piece of work is
related to ARI’s work forhelping people in di�ﬁcult
situations. Every part
contributes to a peaceful world.”)³JDIJ&OE³(continued from Finances)

Income by category
Total US$ 1,162,727
Scholarship$ 380,223

Grants for special projects$ 28,826

Entrance fee$ 176

Gain from sale of assets$ 17,425

Sales & special services$ 217,577

Donations$ 454,196

Interests & dividends$ 662

Consumption expenditure by category

Investment income$ 9,435

Total US$ 1,401,683
Personnel$ 617,985

Misc. revenue$ 63,642

Education & Research$ 214,554

General & Administrative (incl.depriciation allowance)$ 545,908 (incl. $ 355,024)

24

Loss from sale of assets$ 13,799

The 2016 Community
Staff
Full Time
Tomoko Arakawa
Yukiko Ôyanagi
Osamu Arakawa
Kaori Sakuma-Vero
Kathy Froede
Ayumi Kikuchi
Masanobu Sakurai
Takashi Ôtani
Gilbert Hoggang
Zacivolu Rhakho
Micah Anderson
Jonathan McCurley
Bernard Timothy Appau
Hiromi SatôTakashi Yamashita

Volunteers

Honorary President and FounderRev. Dr. Toshihiro Takami

Jun Yagizawa

Director
Assistant Director, Curriculum Coordinator
Assistant Director, Education Director, Farm Manager
General Manager, Fundraising, Domestic Business
Ecumenical Relations
Domestic Business (Liaison, Donations)
Foodlife (Crops & Vegetables)
Foodlife (Livestock)
Foodlife (Livestock)
Foodlife (Meal Service), Ecumenical Relations
Education (Admissions & Graduate Outreach)
Education (Chaplain, Community Life)
Education (Chaplain, Community Life), Foodlife (Livestock)
Domestic Business (Sales, General Affairs, PR)
Domestic Business (External Programs &Nasu Seminar House Manager)
Domestic Business (Liaison, Donations, PR, Supporters)

Part Time
Mitsue Kimijima
Kôki Arai
Junko Tanaka
Manami Kobayashi
Masayo Fukushima
Vero Ruyipa

General Affairs (Accounting)General Affairs
Education (Library)
Foodlife (Meal Service)
Domestic Business (Food Processing)Domestic Business (Nasu Seminar House) (June- Dec)

Contract
Hôichi EndôThomas Itsuo Fujishima
Steven Cutting

Finance Oﬃcer
Domestic Business (PR)
Education (Graduate Outreach) (Jan- Mar)

Board
Former Director, Asian Rural InstituteVice Chair
Hôichi Endô

ARI Finance Comittee

Masahiko Yamane
Tomoko Arakawa

Special Advisor and Senior Fellow,
The Japan Research Institute, Ltd
Pastor, UCCJ Matsuzaki Church
Nasu Tomo no Kai
Press Editor, The Yomiuri Shinbun
Professor Emeritus, International Christian University
Former moderator of NCCJ / Priest, Shiki Seibo
Church, Anglican Episcopal Church
General Manager, Kagawa Nutrition University
Director, Asian Rural Institute

Auditors
Tomohiro Ôkubo
Sakae Murata

Fujii Industries Inc., Operating Oﬃcer
Nasu Wise Mens Club

Rev. Masaoki Hoshino
Junko Iinuma
Noriaki SatôKôa Tasaka
Isamu Koshiishi

ARI Becquerel Center
Volunteers
Mineki Nishikawa
Yukio Takashima
Takashi Akutsu
Shôhei Fujimoto
Takayuki Hayasaka

Long-Term on Campus
Manosi Abe Chatterjee
Manuel Reif
Haruka Fukushima
Yuki Hashiride
Kanako Nakata
Saki Maeda
Kirino Kajiya
Tetsurô Sugiyama
Tatsuya Masuda
Sara Weiler
Rey Oliver Fabros
Ayumi Ueno
Wil MerchantMariya Kanno

Admissions
Meal Service, Admissions
Sales, Community Life
Domestic Business
Meal Service
Livestock
Livestock
Crops & Vegetables
Crops & Vegetables
Crops & Vegetables
Admissions
Meal Service
Ecumenical Relations
PR

Takako Iwaide
Saya Furuno
Noriko Yoshida
Keiko Arimura
Vero Ruyipa
Takako Sakairi

Board of Councillors

Board Chair
Ken’ichi ÔtsuBoard of Directors
Hideharu Kadowaki

Commuting Volunteers
Takashi Fushimi
Jin Onozaki
Kyôko Takamura
Tadashi Itô
Yumi Suzuki
Ichirô Sahara
Takashi Hirayama
Shigeaki Kashiwaya
Junko Nishino
Norie Horiuchi
Ayako Hayashida
Kazuko Fujimoto
Satoshi Takagi
Satomi McCurley
Masuo Shimizu

Kiyoshi Nagashima
Michiru Yoneda
Rev. Masaoki Hoshino
Hideharu Kadowaki
Masahiko Yamane
Satoru Kuze
Sarajean Rossitto
Rev. Isao Kikuchi
Mitsuo Fukumoto
Hikari Kokai
Yoshiyuki Nagata
Rev. Chun SangHyun
Rev. Ban HyungWook
Shinobu Kuritani
Kazue Yamaguchi
Takeshi Shimizu
Tomoko Arakawa
Hôichi Endô
Osamu Arakawa
Yukiko Ôyanagi
Kaori Sakuma

25

Former staff of ARISuperior General, The Sisters of the Visitation
Pastor, UCCJ Matsuzaki Church
Special Advisor and Senior Fellow,
The Japan Research Institute, Ltd
General Manager, Kagawa Nutrition
Chairman, Meiji Gakuin University
NGO/NPO Consultant
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Niigata
Principal, Nishinasuno Kindergarten
Representative Director, Wesley Foundation
Lecturer, University of the Sacred Heart
Pastor, Korean Christian Church in Japan, Sapporo Ch.
Pastor Nishinasuno Church
Lawyer, Cosmos Lawyer’s Oﬃce
National Tomo no Kai, Head Quarters
Tokyo Union Church Elder
Director, Asian Rural Institute
ARI Finance Committee
Staff of ARI
Staff of ARI
Staff of ARIThe Graduates of 2016
25

7

9

3

12
6

22

18

24

16

11

21

2

27

4

5

19

8

13

17

10

26

23

20

1
14

15

Rural Leaders Training Course
BHUTANCAMEROONCENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
GHANA
INDIA
INDONESIAKENYA
MALAWIMYANMARPHILIPPINESSRI LANKATANZANIAZAMBIA

Advanced Training Course

1) Karma ChukiNational Organic Programme2) Sangay WangdiNational Organic Programme3) Fonsah Pius ChickCommunity Initiative for Sustainable Environment
and Gender Development (CISEGD)
4) Kumbong Stella KangAssociated Rehabilitation for the Handicapped(ARCH)
5) Chiambah Enock NtamBelo Rural Development Association (BERUDA)
6) Paul DainaEvangelical Lutheran Church of the Central African Republic
7) Paul Yao KpaiEnvironmental Development Youth Movement (EDYM)
8) Abraham BreseOsramanae Beekeepeers Association (OBA)
9) Aton ShaizaAction of Women in Development (AWID)
10) Matilda NainggolanBatak Protestant Christian Church (HKBP) Samosir11) Hieronymus Martyadin NgampuIndependent Delegation of Claretian
Missionaries
12) Paskaria Imanuel Perangin-anginKaro Batak Protestant Church Rural Development Institution13) Consolata Amisi KhakaaliSociety of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
14) Cecilia MpingaHygiene Village Project15) Towera MtamboChingale Recovery and Development Program(CHINRAD)16) Yaw LingMCUM Mindat, Methodist Church Upper Myanmar17) Thla SungMCUM Hakha, Methodist Church Upper Myanmar18) Sui Lian ThangHualngo Land Development Organization (HLDO)
19) Joe Balisbisan JimenezSacred Heart Institute for Transformation (SHIFT)
20) Saman Rathnasiri BandaraVisura Development Foundation
21) Yeherome Michael WanniyabandaraMethodist Church Sri Lanka22) Mwita Baita MateleUnited Methodist Church, Mara District
Our Father’s House at the Emmanuel Center
23) Belvin Kapembwa PambaVillage Water Zambia

INDIA24) Rentta Ngulie
Liangmai Baptist Association(1997 Graduate)
MALAWI
25) Macdonald Njala Banda
Anglican Diocese of Upper Shire(2010 Graduate)
PHILIPPINES
26) Annie Jane Lagawan
WAND Foundation (Water, Agro-forestry,
Nutrition and Development Foundation)(2010 Graduate)

Graduate InternJAPAN27) Yuto Yazawa(2015 Graduate)

That We May Live Together

442-1 Tsukinokizawa, Nasushiobara,
Tochigi, 329-2703 JAPAN

TEL
FAX

+81-287-36-3111+81-287-37-5833

EMAIL
FACEBOOK

info@ari-edu.org
Asian Rural Institute