The shooting incident that occurred in South Africa on June 28th, 2004, in which a group of Falun Gong practitioners was fired upon in an apparent Chinese government-backed murder attempt, inspired us to go to South Africa and other African countries to introduce Falun Dafa. Our two-week journey in Uganda from October 26th to November 8th let us feel the African people's longing for Falun Dafa, and we further experienced the vastness and compassion of Falun Dafa.
Owner of a Well-known Hotel: Welcome!
This first thing we did upon arriving in Uganda on October 26th was to establish a practise site. We toured around the Capital, Kampala and found that a park in front of a famous international hotel was an ideal place. It was said that the park, which is well maintained, is the only quiet and elegant park in Kampala. There is a big lawn outside the park and it is open to the public. We decided to visit the owner of the hotel to discuss the possibility of establishing a practise site in the park.
We first met the manager of the public relations department of the hotel. She is a Ugandan woman. We explained the facts about Falun Gong to her and she was deeply moved. She told us to wait for a moment and she would tell her boss about this. A few hours later, she called us back. She said that her boss had heard about Falun Gong before and he welcomed us to come here! The park belongs to the hotel. The owner expressed that he welcomes us to come at any time and to use the park as long as we wanted to.
Thus, we set up a practise site on the second day after we came to Uganda.
The hotel manager also told us that since we were establishing a practise site, we probably wanted to have more people come to join us. She said that she would like to invite all media outlets that she knew about to interview us and help us to publicise our information. Then she took the initiative to call the media and left us their phone numbers.
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| Accepting media interviews | ||
All the invited media came out and reported on us, including two mainstream newspapers, one weekly newspaper, the most influential local TV station and the only non-commercial radio station. Ugandan Radio Station broadcasts at set time the information about the Falun Gong practise site and the practise schedule in both English and local languages. The TV station reporter was very excited after watching the video explaining the facts about Falun Gong and the persecution. He came to the practise site to interview us and local people who came to learn the exercises. He decided to run a deep special report on the facts of Falun Gong in addition to the news report.
The Practise Site Rapidly Grows
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| The new practise site | ||
While contacting the media to publicise the practise site, we also distributed thousands of flyers.
Although on the first day we were the only ones practising at the site, many local people who came to the park to take a break watched us with full of interest. On the second day, three local people came to join us. At present, these three people are still going to the park every day to practise Falun Gong. Two of them are now in charge of this practise site. In the following days, many people who received our flyers or watched the news report on TV, or who heard the radio broadcasts came to join us. Sometimes, there were 8 to 9 or even 20 people. Initially, many people came to the practise site because the exercise instruction was free of charge. It was Falun Dafa's wonderfulness that led them to stay.
A local small business owner is very interested in Falun Gong. After he personally practised Falun Gong, he asked all of his employees to come out to practise the exercises. He also introduced Falun Gong and the practise site to all his friends.
A local man named Richard said he felt the energy when he passed by our practise site. Then he took the initiative to join our group Fa (1) study after the practise. He said that he was deeply touched and this was what he had waited for for so long. "Why didn't you come here four or five years earlier? I wish I could have obtained the Fa earlier!" said Richard. We told him that it was not too late and he was the first person in Uganda to study the Fa. We told him to cherish it. He said, "I will! I feel very proud of it!" From that point on, whenever people came to the practise site to learn the exercises, he would teach them. When local people did not understand our English, he took the initiative to translate for them. We quickly formed a harmonious team.
Reaching Predestined People at a University
When we went to a well-known local university to introduce Falun Dafa, we met the executive director of the Law Department. Upon hearing that we were Falun Gong practitioners, he became very excited as if he were meeting his long-lost family members.
He said that when he studied in Ireland several years ago, he met Falun Gong practitioners there and he read the book Zhuan Falun [the principal teachings of Falun Gong]. He said that he was very surprised to encounter Falun Gong once again in Uganda. He believed that this was his predestined relationship with Falun Dafa. There are courses about human rights in the Law Department. This professor introduced Falun Gong in one of the classes. The class response was very enthusiastic. A local student stayed after class and asked us about becoming a Falun Gong practitioner.
A Chinese Woman in Uganda and a Visit to the Chinese Embassy
When we introduced Falun Dafa to local people in a big hotel, a quiet Chinese woman gave us a note with her phone number on it without being noticed. She asked us to call her when we were free.
Two days later, we called her and made an appointment to meet with her. When we met, she looked very excited. She said that she did not know why, but when she met Falun Gong practitioners in a foreign land she felt that she was meeting her family members whom she had not seen for years. She said she cried for two days during the two-day separation. She said that she understood that Falun Gong practitioners are all good people. She was from Liaoning Province. Her younger sister's family all practised Falun Gong. However, over the past five years, the family had been persecuted terribly. She felt that there was no way to seek justice for them and nowhere to appeal and she was in despair. Thus she decided to go abroad at any cost so that she could manage to bring her sister's child, who is still suffering the tribulation, outside China and raise her. Unfortunately, after she arrived in Uganda, she has been struggling with her own life and it seemed she could never rescue her sister's child. Thus she felt very sad and even hopeless. It was under such a situation that she met us.
We told her that we understood her and felt sympathy for her. We also let her know that in China, thousands of Falun Gong practitioners' families are still suffering similar tragic circumstances. Jiang Zemin utilised the Party to initiate and maintain this extremely inhuman suppression, which has harmed millions of families. This is also the reason why Falun Gong practitioners in more than 20 countries are now filing lawsuits against Jiang and his accomplices and requesting the international court to openly try Jiang Zemin. In addition, we told her that there is an overseas organisation dedicated to rescuing persecuted Falun Gong practitioners and we would help her contact this organisation so as to work towards rescuing her younger sister's child.
The woman wept again. She asked us if she could learn Falun Gong. We told her that she surely could. We gave her a copy of the book Zhuan Falun and asked her to read it. A few days later, she came to see us and requested to learn the exercises.
This Chinese woman's story inspired us to go to the Chinese Embassy to clarify the truth to the Chinese people who work there and who are deceived by the lies of Jiang and his faction. We went to the Embassy and requested to meet the ambassador. We waited in the reception room. Shortly after, the first secretary came down and asked in an abrupt tone, "What do you want?" A female practitioner calmly told him the reason why we came here and about the persecution encountered by Falun Gong in China. Completely unexpected, the secretary stood up and told the gate guards, "Get them out of here!" Then he quickly left. He looked very scared. The Western practitioners felt that the behaviour of the Chinese Embassy's staff was inconceivable. They also felt much pity for them
Guard at the Parliament Building: "I Already Know about Falun Gong!"
In front of the Ugandan Parliament Building, a gate guard received our leaflet and smiled, "Falun Gong! Falun Gong comes to Uganda!" A practitioner asked, "Do you know about Falun Gong?" He said, "I've known about it for quite some time. When I first heard about Falun Gong, I searched on the Internet and learned many facts about the persecution. Let me help you!" Then he gave us much help. He told us how to reach related government offices in the shortest period of time.
We also presented Falun Gong books to all the libraries in Kampala, including university libraries and the central library of the city. The librarians were very happy to receive the books. We distributed books until we ran out.
The two weeks quickly passed. Before we left Uganda, we went to the big hotel again and presented a large bouquet of flowers to the manager and thanked him for his support and help.
We felt that although the Ugandan people are very poor, their pursuit of belief is very pure and reverent. They are also quite tolerant of each other. We have seen that the coming of Falun Dafa has invoked people's longing for Dafa from the bottom of their hearts. We believe and sincerely wish that the Ugandan people will have a bright and wonderful future!
(1) Fa: Law and principles; the teachings of Falun Dafa.
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