(Clearwisdom.net) On Wednesday, December 19th, 2001 the Finnish Falun Dafa Association was registered and established in the National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland. With this, the Finnish Falun Dafa Association is now listed in the association register, and thus is official in Finland.

During the year 2001, many people in Finland have started the practice of Falun Dafa, and with the work of the new and veteran practitioners, Falun Dafa has spread to all areas of the country. Practitioners have distributed information leaflets on the streets and have held weekend courses to teach the Falun Gong exercises in all the major cities. In addition, two Finnish cities now have weekly practice classes, with a third planned for next year.

Practitioners held two press conferences in the capital city of Helsinki, and also established contact with the human rights unit of the Finnish government's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They also met with members of Parliament and gave them information on Falun Dafa and its persecution. The president of Finland has also received information, and on September 20th, practitioners received a reply letter from the Office of the President. Written by an adviser on behalf of the President, the letter states that she is aware of the situation, and discusses the human rights policy of Finland and of the European Union.

Finnish newspapers have published many positive articles on Falun Gong this year, and a special documentary program was produced after the Western practitioners peacefully appealed on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. With the establishment of the Finnish Falun Dafa Association, practitioners are looking forward to next year, which will surely bring growing numbers of truthful reports on Falun Dafa in the Finnish media, as well as more and more Dafa activities in Finland.