| GLOBAL MISSION TO RESCUE FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS |
|
“Mom, where are you?” TThis is a story from Mrs. Tianxiao Zhang, one of my friends who is living in Vancouver, about her niece, Rongrong, a four year old Chinese girl: “A small, timid figure walked out hesitantly from the background towards me. She looked very different from the cheerful face in my memory since our first acquaintance. I was caught by a strange air of innocence around her. It struck me that she was my niece Rongrong. In stark contrast to the other children who are having fun and giggling around her, Rongrong stood peacefully amidst the chaos. It was not her fault that she couldn’t enjoy the fun brought about by the Christmas Season. Unlike her peers, she was born without a father by her side. It was not her father’s fault either. Months before her birth, her father and my sister-in-law, Zou Songtao were arrested and illegally detained in a Chinese detention centre after going to Beijing on a peaceful appeal against the persecution of Falun Gong. During his captivity he was electrocuted, beaten up, and severely tortured. When the father finally had a chance to return home to look at his new baby, his happiness did not last long – he was re-arrested in July 2000, and never came home again. The darkness did not end thus. Rongrong’s mother, my sister Zhang Yunhe became the next target victim. Faced with constant harassment by police officers, Rongrong did not enjoy what she deserved as a baby. Soon, Rongrong’s life was distorted again when her only other parent left her as well. Rongrong had to live with her 60-year-old grandmother thereafter. Due in part to her grief over the loss of her daughter and son-in-law, Rongrong’s grandmother passed away in August 2001. It wasn’t the fault of any of her family members that it ended up this way. Rongrong, who has suffered no less than the adults have, is absolutely innocent as a child, yet she is suffering tremendously from a needless persecution. As I watch her step onto a little stool, reaching up to kiss a box of her Daddy’s box of ashes; and as I looked at the joyous holiday mood around her, the irony struck me. I vowed that I would give my best to give her that important thing that she has been missing – love.” Standing on Canadian soil, people can hardly imagine the brutal persecution to Falun Gong practitioners, a group of 70 million people who believe in the principle of “Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance”, has lasted for 5 years in China. At least 1157 have been tortured to death for not renouncing their peaceful faith in Falun Gong; more than 100,000 are being detained in prisons, labor camps and mental hospitals; tens of hundred of children like Rongrong lost their parents.
Tonight, when Christmas trees are lighted, when families reunite, I cannot stop thinking of ten of hundreds Chinese orphans like Rongrong, and hundreds of million people who are silenced in China. I would like to give this donation to Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners that has helped me to rescue my mother from Beijing Women Labor Camp in 2003, and hope they could help Rongrong to get out of the land of nightmare and reunite with her aunt in Canada.
|
