Happy New Year!

We want to express our sincere thanks and gratitude to the respected BCAE members for electing us as your representative for 2023. We feel honored and privileged to serve the community. We appreciate and acknowledge the contribution of all past Presidents, members of the past executive committees, standing committees, and election commissions for their dedication and hard work for the past 43 years.

We respectfully acknowledge that the land on which we work and live is Treaty 6 territory and a traditional meeting ground and home for many indigenous peoples, including Cree, Saulteaux, Niitsitapi (Blackfoot), Metis and Nakota Sioux peoples. We want to thank the Government of Canada, the Government of Alberta, and the City of Edmonton for providing us a great platform for practicing and preserving Bangladeshi culture. Moreover, we deeply remember all of the martyrs and freedom fighters of the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971.

We feel very excited to inform you that we had our first in-person executive committee (EC) meeting on December 7, 2022 and prepared a draft plan for the BCAE events and activities in 2023. We will present the draft plan in the upcoming Annual General Meeting for discussion and approval. Our focus for this year is to bring back the regular events that got disrupted by the pandemic. Moreover, we plan to organize some events focusing on our youth and seniors.  As a respected member of our beloved community, we also want to hear from you as well. Please reach out to us at ec@bcae.ca if you have any suggestions and we will consider those in our planning process. 

Inauguration of Bangladesh Center in 2022 was one of notable achievements in BCAE’s history. We sincerely thank all donors, volunteers, members of the Community Facility Committee and its predecessor Special Project Committees, the past EC members and all BCAE members who worked tirelessly to make this dream happen. Proper utilization of this facility as well as its continuous development will be another priority for the EC 2023. 

No executive committee can be successful without the support and help of its community members. We need your enthusiastic participation, uppermost support, and constructive feedback to plan and execute our events. We hope, if we all work together, we can make the year 2023 a successful one from the association’s point of view.