by Queensland Falun Dafa Practitioners

Over the last 4 years, Falun Dafa practitioners on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland have presented regular information displays within the seven main libraries of our local community. These displays have offered the public a unique opportunity to learn more about Falun Dafa.

Our presentations have consisted of an information table and partition boards for hanging posters. Copies of the books "Falun Gong" and "Zhuan Falun", the exercise video and information on the practice of Falun Dafa, including truth-clarification materials, are usually displayed on our tables and later donated to the library. Colour posters illustrating the exercises, photos from our local events and beautiful origami lotus flowers have been included to enhance our presentations. Demonstrations of the exercises outside of the libraries have also proved to create further interest from people of all ages and backgrounds.

The library staff have warmly welcomed and often complimented on the quality of our displays. In a couple of instances where minor misunderstandings have arisen, we have utilised the opportunity to clarify the truth of the persecution against Falun Dafa and the millions of innocent practitioners in China.

Our local libraries have also been wonderful venues for us to present the "Petals of Peace" project, inspired by a 4 year old Australian girl, Fadu and her mother, Jane Dai. The project invites people of all ages to fold an origami lotus flower as a gesture of compassion and to raise awareness of the countless children who are subjected to the suffering in China.

Many have eagerly participated in our workshops and their hearts are touched when they hear of Fadu's tragic story. When Fadu and Jane were in Geneva for this year's United Nations summit, many people wrote positive messages to Fadu on postcards that we provided, offering people a means of condemning the human rights violations against practitioners under the rule of the Jiang regime.

At one library, mothers and their children enjoyed the lotus folding so much that they were hesitant to leave after our workshop and some happily assisted newcomers with the folding after they had learnt themselves. We also held a display for the "International Children's Day" last year, which attracted a lot of positive interest.

Our library displays throughout the Sunshine Coast have proven to be very effective in introducing both the peaceful nature of Dafa and the ongoing persecution in China to those within our local community.

Posting date: 30/Jul/2004
Original article date: 27/Jul/2004
Category: Australian News