(Minghui.org) The 2012 Global Health & Humanitarian Summit was held at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia from April 13 to 15. Several hundred experts, scholars and employees in the health and humanitarian aid fields across the world participated in the three-day conference. Atlanta Falun Gong practitioners were invited to participate.
Introducing Falun Gong at the 2012 Global Health & Humanitarian Summit
In the main hall and several other conference rooms, nearly one hundred speakers gave presentations. Nearly a hundred governmental and non-governmental organizations including groups on health, practice, humanitarian aid and research, set up stands in the medical school building to introduce their missions and services. The conference also hosted several films, including a documentary film about the persecution of Falun Gong in China, Free China: The Courage to Believe.
The topics of the summit were broad and various, including humanitarian issues, health, the natural environment, natural foods, public health, disabled people, the homeless, world peace, belief and persecution, children's issue and healthy lifestyles.
In the summit, Falun Gong practitioners introduced the characteristics of Falun Gong, the persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the CCP’s atrocities of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners. They also demonstrated the Falun Gong exercises.
Next to the Falun Gong practitioners’ stand was a group called EDGES: Emory Dermatology Global Endeavors for Service. The staff and visiting doctors and experts were shocked after hearing about the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong and the live organ harvesting. They expressed their support for Falun Gong practitioners' efforts to end the persecution. Several Tibetan monks said that the CCP was extremely evil after hearing the facts. They expressed their interest in the practice of Falun Gong and asked the practitioners to demonstrate the exercises.
A practitioner demonstrates the fifth set of Falun Gong exercises
On Sunday afternoon, the documentary film Free China: The Courage to Believe was shown for the first time in Atlanta. The film was directed by Michael Perlman and produced in cooperation with New Tang Dynasty TV. The film was also shown in the 17th Palm Beach International Film Festival in mid-April 2012. The documentary tells the remarkable stories of Jennifer Zeng, a former Communist Party member and Dr. Charles Lee, a Chinese American businessman, who were jailed and tortured for their belief in Falun Gong, the meditation practice that swept across China in the 1990s. This documentary film provides new information that connects China's widespread human rights violations with systemic unfair trade practices and state-sanctioned organ harvesting for profit.
After the film was shown, the viewers stayed for more than an hour asking questions about the practice, the persecution, and the live organ harvesting. Many issues were discussed and many people expressed their views. Several Chinese students and visiting scholars studying at Emory University were also in attendance. Some of them talked openly about the CCP’s propaganda. One of them said, “We are not fools. We come overseas and learn the facts too.” A woman of European descent advised the students, “You need to remember that a government that controls and manages people’s thinking and belief is absolutely wrong.”
Among the Chinese students and visiting scholars, Dr. Ming (alias) is a surgeon. He and a few students from the medical school continued talks with the Falun Gong practitioners after watching the film. After talking for nearly two hours, they said that they would read the investigation report about organ harvesting by David Matas and David Kilgour, Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, and Zhuan Falun to learn more about Falun Gong and the persecution.
The Global Health & Humanitarian Summit organizers interviewed practitioners from the Atlanta Falun Dafa Association and said that they would post the interview on the summit's standing organization website.
