Creating a Compassionate and Vegetarian Global Village

Universities

 

Standing banner: “Vegetarianism saves our earth and environment.”

 

As the weather became cooler in September of Golden Year 3, Korean initiates started distributing Alternative Living file-holders at university campuses nationwide instead of the Alternative Living fans. To better reach out to the students, initiates came up with multi-faceted ways to deliver the message of compassionate living, which included using a mobile promotion car that played Master’s video on a screen, placing laminated posters on the sides of key roads, and dressing up as a clown to hand out flyers. The response was enthusiastic.

Since mid-September, initiates have passed out more than 80,000 file-holders in university cities such as Seoul, Daegu, Daejeon and Gwangju. Most students read the message printed on the folders carefully and discussed the contents with their friends. Some volunteered to distribute folders at a crowded night feast; some offered useful tips on good distributing spots and many expressed their sympathy for the animals while watching the video “The Real Heroes.” Some even visited our local Centers for more information.

Initiates also paid visits to environment-related clubs at each university, where they explained the purpose of the Alternative Living message while handing out flyers and file-folders to the club members. At Seoul National University, members of a club called The Companions of Vegetarians had successfully requested school authorities to designate every Wednesday as a vegetarian day, meaning that the school made a vegetarian menu available every Wednesday at the student restaurant. Now they are planning to establish a vegetarian-only restaurant on campus. Hoping that more and more students would become vegetarian-conscious, initiates put up Alternative Living posters at each bulletin area.

Over about a two-month period, a total of 80,000 file-folders were distributed at university campuses and other academies nationwide. To the youth receiving them, the word “vegetarianism” soon became familiar as they showed openness to the new ideas and trends, and quickly accepted the Alternative Living message of non-violence and love.

 

Farming Cooperative Festival

 

The 2006 Consumer/Producer Get-Together to Support Korea’s Farms was held at the Sangju Environment and Agriculture School. Impressed by our previous promotion work and our message, the president of the school, Mr. Oh Duk Hoon, contacted the Andong Center and invited initiates to participate in this event. Along with distributing Alternative Living flyers and file holders, free “soy meat” samples were also offered.

It turned out that our booth created the biggest sensation of all. Guests showed a sincere and avid interest and many asked scrupulously about every single ingredient. Children in particular were so fond of the veggie meat substitute that they were reluctant to leave. Marveling at how their children were enjoying the food, parents were motivated to take flyers and other information.

During the event, a few visitors such as the mayor of Sangju and the president of the National Consumer’s Cooperation also honored us by coming to our booth and tasting the food as well as picking up Alternative Living information. In particular, President Oh from the Sangju Environment and Agriculture School spent a long time in deep conversation with initiates and agreed that there is no alternative to saving the environment except vegetarianism. Initiates were most excited to hear that the president gave them permission to hold regular expert seminars and cooking classes on vegetarianism in this well-respected school.

Green Korea

 

On November 17, Golden Year 3 (2006), Gwangju Center participated in the 2006 Gwangju-Jeonnam Green Korea Support Night, a very meaningful event sponsored by Green Korea, a large environmental organization. For this event, initiates were once again contacted by the organizer to participate due to their previous large-scale promotions of vegetarianism.

Apart from offering vegetarian foods for all participants, initiates also provided Alternative Living flyers and sample booklets, displayed Master’s magazines and books, and played “The Real Heroes” DVD and videos from PETA. Green Korea staff said they would do their best to help our promotion. A middle school teacher asked for dozens of Alternative Living folders to distribute to students and acquaintances. Other guests also liked the folders and carefully read their contents.

Some children paid great attention to the film “The Real Heroes.” They expressed a wish to be completely vegetarian and work on behalf of animal rights in the future. Seeing such positive responses from the children, initiates could feel the presence of Master’s love and blessings. They sincerely wished that all the children could be real heroes of the Earth by practicing vegetarianism.

Expositions

 

On November 1, 172 Korean companies and 74 overseas companies came together at the AT Center in Seoul for a four-day convention called Food Korea 2006. Seoul Center practitioners also set up a vegetarian booth replete with Alternative Living publicity and a vegetarian sampling party. Throughout the convention, an endless beeline of people was drawn to our booth for food tasting. Of particular note were the many young school-age visitors who seemed to appreciate the vegetarian food the most.

In the same month, the initiates also participated in Korea’s largest tourism expo, Gyeonggi International Travel Mart. There, food sampling as well as Alternative Living flyers were provided. The tremendously positive response was heart-warming. One manager of a chicken franchise restaurant expressed his astonishment at discovering our veggie chicken meat. Dropping by our booth every day to receive various pieces of information, he finally said he was inspired to switch his business to become a vegetarian chicken franchise!

The Solution to the Avian Flu

An outbreak of the avian flu spread throughout South Korea from November 2006 to January 2007. To provide positive information about this problem, initiates printed the article on avian flu from News No. 162 and placed it in the mailboxes of affected areas as well as the larger cities. We pray to God that all citizens become aware that vegetarianism is the ultimate solution to this disease so that such a bloody and sad incident will never happen again!

Korean initiates add “Avian Flu: Nature’s Wake-Up Call for Humanity” contents to the Alternative Living flyers and put them into mailboxes.

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