This year marked Cru Singapore Media Ministry’s first participation in the annual Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC). The AFCC is organised by the Singapore Book Council (SBC) and “aims to celebrate and promote the creation and appreciation of children’s books and content, with a focus on Asian themes.”

The event from 6 to 8 Sep was hosted by the National Library Board (NLB) at its Victoria Street headquarters. This year’s theme was “Imagine-Asia” with Singapore as the ‘Country of Focus’. Over 150 local and international speakers conducted more than 130 programmes on the creation and
development of Asian content for children.

The AFCC book-fair brought together a variety of multilingual children’s and young adult content from local and overseas publishers.

The book-fair provided a wonderful platform for children book launches, including local author Jenni Ho-Huan’s The Seed From heaven about the seeds we plant by the choices we make, and Hong Kong author Ritu Hemnani’s Gope and Meera – a migration Story, a biographical account of Indian families separated by the country’s ‘Partition’ in 1947. Other activities included storytelling, language and literacy talks for parents, and meet-the-author sessions that, this year, featured a ‘speed-date’ concept of 3-minute rotating, one-to-one chats.

The AFCC book-fair was a wonderful opportunity for the launch of our first four titles of The Adventures of Bramlee Bears Series. The books comprise short, captivating “character tales” adapted from international best selling author, Dr. V. Gilbert Beers’  original storybook. Beginning with Honesty, Kindness, Obedience, and Thankfulness, these essential, God endowed character qualities affirms His design and our desire for the lives of our children.

The highlight of the book launch was the children’s colouring competition, comprising the covers of the four titles. 5 winners received the complete set of all 4 titles, whilst all other entrants received a copy of the title they chose to colour-in.

In many ways, Cru’s participation at this year’s AFCC was an immense success. Not only was the exposure and networking sessions important for the growth of our organization, but more importantly was our engagement with the public. Attending such events allows us to touch the lives of not only those who have been saved, but also our outreach and connection with the public. A parent of one of the participants was so pleased that she wrote in to thank us. Her email is as follows,

“It is the 1st contest my kids have entered and even though it is a consolation prize, they were very excited upon receiving the news! I’m sure it will leave good memories in their childhood. Thank you for being part of this good memory.” 

October 2018