Scientology Today

On January 6, 2010, Annalisa Tissoni, President of the Church of Scientology of Milan, and Fiorella and Gaetano Cerchiara, President and Director respectively of the Association for Human Rights and Tolerance of Italy, presented a special gift to the village of Twewaa—a new school.  With the opening of this school, the second sponsored by Italian Scientologists, the children of the village gained an important human right, as stated in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—”the right to education.”

The Twewaa school opening ceremony included speeches by village Chief Nana Somua Nyampong II, Assembly Member Paul Adarkwah, and Chief Executive of Kwahu South District Assembly, Samuel Asomani.

“We involved the community in every aspect of the planning and construction of the school because it belongs to them,” said Ms. Tissoni.  They also hired local companies and artisans and purchased all raw materials for the construction from local merchants, as well as school supplies, clothes and shoes for the children and classroom furniture.

The project began three years ago when an educator in the Ghana capital city of Accra needed additional funds to complete the construction of a school. He invited Ms. Tissoni and Ms. Cerchiara to Ghana, and when they saw the need, they immediately decided to help.  With funds raised by the Milan Church of Scientology and the Association for Human Rights and Tolerance, the construction of the Untoma Oxford International School was completed, opening in August 2008 with some 300 children enrolled.

When the Untoma Oxford School was completed, Tissoni and Cerchiara visited outlying villages and chose Twewaa as their next project.  With the Twewaa school now opened, they are focusing on their third project, a school in a nearby village in Eastern Ghana, scheduled to open before the end of 2010.

“We have taken on this project because education is a basic human right and a vital component to creating a better world,” said Ms. Tissoni.  “Our Church is very much involved in promoting human rights awareness.  Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard said ‘Human rights must be made a fact, not an idealistic dream.’ By helping to build these schools, we are enabling the children to create a better future for themselves and their communities.”

To learn more about the human rights initiatives of the Church of Scientology, visit the Scientology website at www.scientology.org.

WSVN Miami presents coverage of the Scientology-sponsored Charter that left for Haiti from Miami 14 February, 2010.

MIAMI (WSVN) — More medical help is on its way to Haiti.

Nearly 50 doctors, nurses and EMT’s flying out from Miami International Airport to the quake devastated region of Port-au-Prince. The trip is being sponsored by the Church of Scientology. About 40 disaster response trained volunteer ministers will also be aboard. “We wanted to bring some medical expertise there and we would support them in what they were doing, because were talking long hours,” said Church Of Scientology volunteer Pat Harney.

To read more and watch the video click here.

Scientology Volunteer Minister, Nicole, tells of her first day in Haiti

Nearly three weeks after the 7.0 earthquake destroyed the city of Port-au-Prince, doctors, nurses and other medical workers continue the battle to save lives of the victims of the disaster.  Teams of Scientology Volunteer Ministers are providing support to the medical teams at the General Hospital and the University of Miami Hospital Tent that was erected at the Port-au-Prince Airport, helping with everything from distributing food and water to cleaning and bandaging wounds, assisting doctors in Intensive Care Units and operating rooms and lending moral support to the victims.

Nicole, a Scientology Volunteer Minister from Los Angeles, left on January 22 on a flight chartered by the Church of Scientology, to transport doctors, nurses and EMTs to Haiti, with Volunteer Ministers for logistics support.  Her first day there, assigned to help at the General Hospital, Nicole was startled to see all the patients had been moved out of the building onto the sidewalk or the grass and were lying there on blankets or cots.  Despite the possibility of complications from unsanitary conditions, the likelihood of the hospital collapsing from damage caused by the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks was an even greater threat to the patients’ survival.

Almost every patient Nicole saw had open, bleeding wounds.  Most were amputees or were otherwise disfigured.  Inspired by the dedication of the doctors and nurses, Nicole took on any task that would free them up so the patients could get more treatment for them.  “I washed patients and fed those who could not feed themselves. I massaged atrophied muscles. I got people to sing, to lift their spirits.”

Nicole will never forget the patient she called “Miracle Man,” a name she gave him because only a miracle could have kept his emaciated, maggot-ridden body alive.  Oblivious to his surroundings, he could not eat his food, so Nicole found baby food, which she mixed with water and fed to him through a syringe. She held him, sang to him, and tried to draw his attention to the world around him.

Suddenly she saw him focus.  His eyes no longer vacant, he began to speak.  He called her “sister,” telling her he had no one else in the world—she is his sister now.  He told Nicole to return the next day, that he will be there waiting for her—he had decided to live.

More than 100 Volunteer Ministers have volunteered in Haiti with the Scientology Disaster Response Team, working in hospitals, distributing food, water and medicine, and providing any other assistance needed by medical workers and other humanitarian groups to bring help to the people of Haiti.

For more information on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers and their work in Haiti, visit their blog at blog.volunteerministers.org.

Scientology Volunteer Minister Karen Farrell, who is also a midwife, delivered six babies in one week while serving with the Scientology Disaster Response Team in Haiti.

Karen Farrell is a midwife and a Scientology Volunteer Minister who lives in New England. When she heard about the Haiti earthquake on January 12, her first thought was that she needed to help. Four days later she was in Port-au-Prince with the medical and disaster relief team of doctors and nurses from the Association of Haitian Physicians Abroad, paramedics and Volunteer Ministers who boarded a flight in New York on January 16, chartered by the Church of Scientology to take medical personnel and supplies to Haiti.

Karen was assigned to General Hospital, where the facilities were woefully inadequate for the doctors and nurses working desperately to do something for the worst of the enormous numbers of earthquake victims. Overwhelmed with casualties, the medical staff could scarcely tend to women having babies.

The Norwegian Red Cross had set up a small makeshift obstetric and surgical unit and welcomed the midwife and doctors newly arrived from America.

Karen and a Haitian-American obstetrician from the Association of Haitian Physicians Abroad who arrived on the same flight set up a rudimentary labor and delivery room that Karen described as “archaic” and started moving women in.

After a 12-hour shift, exhausted obstetrics staff started leaving for the night. With no doctor on duty, Karen decided to stay. A fortunate decision. Karen delivered two babies that night.

The first baby was a girl whose mother named her “My Love.” The second was born to a 16-year-old first-time mother. Alone, without her family or the father, the young mother was exhausted and terrified. “1 held her in my arms for a long time, rocking her,” said Karen. “After eight hours, we were finally able to move her to a room with power (yes, we were in the dark all that time). I had to show her how to push and get her to understand me.” With the help of a translator, she told the woman, “Be strong and deliver this baby now!”

On another night, six women were in labor, two of them difficult cases. Karen could only hope their babies would hold off until the obstetrics staff came back on duty. Then, as morning dawned, another earthquake struck. Panic swept through the hospital. Some patients, forgetting their limbs had been amputated, tried to stand up and run out. Others who were far too sick to move struggled to get out of bed and out of the building.

“People were screaming and the whole building was shaking,” said Karen. The labor room and all the obstetrics patients were in the basement, and Karen knew that if the building collapsed they would all be trapped.

She scrambled with medical students and military personnel to evacuate the patients from the basement and the wards, carrying them outside and placing them on the ground away from the unstable hospital building.

The move was too much for some. A young man died when his oxygen tank was disconnected so he could be moved. The nurse with him went into shock and was unable to function. Karen quickly applied her Volunteer Minister Disaster Response training that orients a person to their immediate surroundings, and the nurse soon snapped out of her shock and said, “OK, we have a lot of work to do,” and got back to work moving patients to safety.

Amid the death and destruction, one of the pregnant women started giving birth. Haitian women near the mother-to-be began to sing. When the baby appeared, a doctor shouted, “A baby has been born! There is hope in the world.”
Karen was still hoping the two difficult cases would hold off until an obstetrician came back on duty. Just as one woman was about to give birth, her labor slowed and the obstetrician arrived in time and delivered the baby by Caesarian section.

Karen also helped non-obstetrics patients. Many had no family because they were killed or separated in the earthquake, so Karen comforted them.  Though I don’t speak Creole, I could still sit with them and simply listen to them talk. I couldn’t understand their words, but I wanted them to know they were not alone.

“One gentleman had so much fear in his eyes. I put my hand on his shoulder and in French I said ‘calm.’ I just wanted him to know that someone was there. He talked and talked and I nodded my head. I understood enough to know that he was in a lot of pain and was terrified. He thought he was dying, and he was. I got a cold cloth and wiped his face and the back of his neck.

“Everything was in disarray, including the area where the medicine was kept, and the doctors were spending their precious time picking though the medicine trying to find the one the man needed. I told them I would look for it so they could keep treating patients. I finally found it and they gave it to him and he recovered. He made it.”

Karen returned home to Boston after a week, to go back to her job. In one week in Haiti she delivered six babies with her own hands and helped with another. She says the experience changed her, and she will never be the same.

For more information on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Haiti Disaster Response, visit http://blog.volunteerministers.org.

To provide news and personal accounts from post-earthquake Haiti, a new blog has been added to the Scientology Volunteer Ministers website at blog.volunteerministers.org.  Although it documents nearly inconceivable hardship in Haiti, its tone reflects the courage and spirit of the volunteers as they work with people of all faiths, backgrounds and walks of life to bring help to the people of this shattered nation.

Karen writes about the seven babies she delivered in one week in Port-au-Prince. Michaela will never forget working at the General Hospital, caring for the patients who were moved out onto the sidewalks when an aftershock made it too dangerous to keep them inside.  Ellen describes saving the life of a man in the Intensive Care Unit.  The doctors told her if the man fell asleep he would die, so she shook him nonstop for half an hour, calling his name to him over and over—”Jean-Pierre, bon jour! Bon Jour!” Finally, the man pulled through.

Living in tents, subsisting on protein bars and nuts and making do with a bucket for a shower, the optimism of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers shines through.  They take on whatever task is needed to help the people of Haiti, whether it is helping at the hospitals, distributing food and water, delivering medical supplies, or providing Scientology assists—spiritual first aid to help people recover from stress and trauma.

The personal accounts and images on the Volunteer Ministers blog balance the horrors of Haiti with a message of hope.  True to the motto of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers—”Something CAN be done about it”—the Scientology Haiti Disaster Response Team members are making a difference in the lives of the people of Haiti, one person at a time.

Fox TV coverage on the disaster relief initiative of the Church of Scientology:

The Church of Scientology has chartered a jet to ferry about 160 doctors, nurses and other volunteers to Haiti on Saturday to help in the earthquake relief efforts.

A small group of volunteers, including a Haitian-American nurse and a Haitian-American construction worker, was meeting Friday night at the Haitian Embassy in Washington for a midnight bus ride to New York City. They were to join the others for that chartered flight out of JFK International Airport. >>

Click here to watch the video

“I want to go to Haiti with the Scientology Volunteer Ministers to help my people.” - Jude Falaise

When a flight chartered by the Church of Scientology leaves Los Angeles for Port-au-Prince on January 21, Haitian Jude Falaise and her 16-year-old son will be on board.  Falaise lost 11 family members-brothers, sisters and cousins-in the 7.0 earthquake January 12 and says she wants to help those who did survive.

While receiving grief counseling last week at a Los Angeles Church of Scientology, Falaise learned that the Church was organizing a flight to Haiti for doctors, nurses, EMTs and Volunteer Ministers. She contacted the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Disaster Relief Coordinator to offer her family’s homes in Port-au-Prince as housing for volunteers, and when she learned of their work, she decided to join the volunteer team herself.

“I’m leaving the comfort of my home and I’m taking my teenage son with me to go volunteer.  What if it was me there with my family, my husband, my children?  I feel it is my duty to go.”

She has also contacted doctors in Port-au-Prince to encourage them to work with the Volunteer Ministers.

More than 100, including Scientology Volunteer Ministers and medical personnel, will be on Thursday’s flight to Port-au-Prince to join teams already there, including 126 Haitian doctors, nurses, EMTs and Volunteer Ministers who arrived on a January 16 charter flight from New York organized by the Church of Scientology.    The Volunteer Ministers are stationed in Port-au-Prince Airport, where they are helping allocating medical personnel, distributing water and food and giving spiritual first aid to relieve shock, stress, exhaustion and trauma.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps is an embracive program of the Church of Scientology to provide community service, disaster relief and emergency response. Created more than 30 years ago by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard, the program has expanded to 203,000 Volunteer Ministers worldwide who have served at 145 worst-case disaster sites, including Ground Zero after 9/11, the Southeast Asia tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.

For more information on the Haiti disaster relief effort visit the Scientology Volunteer Ministers blog.

Church of Scientology  Drug-Free Marshals helped  hundreds of LA youth take the “drug-free pledge” at a Los Angeles block party.

Youth of the Church of Scientology are working to arm LA kids with the best anti-drug weapon there is—the real facts about drugs.  At a block party last weekend, these youth helped 200 kids and teens make decisions that will benefit them the rest of their lives—the decision to live a drug-free life.

For the past 16 years, the Los Angeles Church of Scientology Drug-Free Marshals have activated young people of all backgrounds, faiths and ethnicities in pledging to live drug-free lives and helping their friends and families do the same.

“Kids are exposed to peer pressure and are hit by pro-drug propaganda every time they turn on the TV, listen to their favorite music or log onto the Internet,” said Edie Reuveni, President of the Church of Scientology Los Angeles who coordinates the activities of her Church’s chapter of the Drug-Free Marshals.  “It’s no wonder nearly half of all public school children in the United States have tried drugs or alcohol by the time they are 13.  Educating youth about drugs is vital.”

The Drug-Free Marshals began in California 16 years ago when members of the Church of Scientology decided to do something to protect kids from the dangers of drugs with straightforward education on the facts.    They realized that if kids got onto drugs because of the influence of “friends,” the best solution would be for kids to help other kids say no to drugs.

Like the U.S. Marshals of the Wild West, whose courage and conviction meant the difference between life and death for the settlers and townsfolk of the day, Drug-Free Marshals protect their peers from drugs, which are potentially as deadly as the blast of a gun.

Today, the Drug-Free Marshals provide their peers The Truth About Drugs series of booklets at sports events, fairs and community gatherings.  Kids earn a Marshals badge by pledging to live a drug-free life, to set an example to their friends and families, and help others make the same decision.

The Los Angeles Church of Scientology Drug-Free Marshals are proud to be the first chapter of a program that has been adopted in cities through the United States and in Canada, Africa, Europe, Japan and Taiwan, and, as the Drug-Free Ambassadors, in Australia and New Zealand.

For more information on the drug-education initiative of the Church of Scientology, visit the Scientology web site.

Scientology volunteers in Amsterdam demand full implementation of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Netherlands must live up to its reputation as human rights champion.

Members of the Church of Scientology of Amsterdam participate in petition-signing events throughout the year to educate the community on the importance of full understanding and implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Amsterdam—Scientology volunteers, determined to end blatant disregard for human rights, circulated a petition on the International Day for Tolerance November 16 to demand education on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in all Netherlands schools.  In fact, Scientologists from Australia to Zimbabwe and Canada to Taiwan work in their communities to educate people on human rights and their responsibility for implementing them, not only for themselves, but for others as well.

“Despite The Universal Declaration of Human Rights having been adopted by the U.N. General Assembly more than 60 years ago, human rights are still infringed upon daily in nations the world over,” said Merel Remmerswaal, Public Affairs Officer for the Church of Scientology of Amsterdam, who helped organize the petition-signing event.

Last week, 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Nicola Duckworth, Europe and Central Asia Program Director at Amnesty International, expressed her concern that human rights are once again under attack.  “Rights fall victim to the views of states with even the most basic human rights, such as protection from torture, are sacrificed to fight terrorism.”

Ms. Remmerswall, whose Church holds educational programs and human rights petition-signing events throughout the year, deplores human rights violations extant in the world today. “Young women are trafficked from Russia for sexual exploitation, African parents look on as their children die a slow death from starvation, people are tortured for their political beliefs,” she said.  “These and so many other human rights abuses run completely counter to the values enshrined in the 30 articles of the UDHR.”

The petition, circulated by Scientology volunteers in partnership with the Amsterdam chapter of Youth for Human Rights International, calls upon the Dutch government to “make human rights education mandatory in schools and to conduct human rights education campaigns for all.”

The Church of Scientology of Amsterdam volunteers partner with a chapter of Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI), which provides booklets, audio-visual materials and other educational materials that broadly raise awareness about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  The booklets and series of 30 short films, one for each article of the UDHR, bring this otherwise formidable document into the grasp of young people.

The preamble of the UDHR calls for “education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms.”  It also states, “…it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law.”

These values are held in common by the Church of Scientology whose founder, L. Ron Hubbard, wrote, “Human Rights must be made a fact, not an idealistic dream.”

Scientologists from Australia to Zimbabwe and Canada to Taiwan work in their communities to educate people on human rights and their responsibility for implementing them, not only for themselves, but for others as well. For more information on the human rights education initiative of the Church of Scientology visit the Scientology web site.

Scientology Churches work to make human rights a fact by pressing for human rights education.

Scientology Churches in cities around the world observe the United Nations-designated International Day for Tolerance Monday, November 16 with petition drives calling on their countries to mandate human rights education.

When 50 nations signed the United Nations Charter on June 26, 1945, “to save future generations from the scourge of war,” they expressed their belief that such a dream requires we “practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors.”

In that spirit, Churches of Scientology are marking the International Day for Tolerance by asking people in communities worldwide to sign the petition calling for human rights education.  Tracie Morrow, Human Rights Youth Coordinator for the Church of Scientology International Human Rights Department, said “Article 1 of the Universal Declaration states that we are all born free and equal.  It is tolerance of the differences in people that makes such a belief possible and brings about Article 3, freedom from discrimination, Article 11, the right to equality under the law, and so many other basic concepts expressed in this document.”

In the Creed of the Church of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard wrote: “We of the Church believe that all men of whatever race, color, or creed were created with equal rights.” “Because the Church of Scientology was founded on a belief in human rights and tolerance,” said Ms. Morrow, “it is a natural progression to support tolerance in all forms.”

The human rights petition states that the fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) are not yet a reality, as human right abuses constitute a worldwide problem and give rise to ethnic, racial and religious conflicts.  The petition calls on the governments of the world to mandate human rights education as the first step in bringing about tolerance, which the visionaries who crafted the UDHR recognized as the crucial element in a lasting peace.

To learn more about the human rights initiative of the Church of Scientology, visit the Scientology site at www.scientology.org.  To sign the human rights petition online, visit  www.humanrights.com/#/petition.

Elly Rajab Omondi, 22, of Nairobi, Kenya, founder and director of Baden Powell Peer Educators, forged a partnership between the Scouts of Kenya and the Scientology Volunteer Ministers this fall.  Omondi’s group, composed of Scout leaders and other young people, grapple with the most critical issues facing his country and Africa as a whole:  how to combat drug abuse and HIV/AIDS and how to resolve conflicts before they escalate into insurgency and war.

Earlier this year, Omondi found the Scientology Volunteer Ministers web site and the online courses offered there.  The skills he gained convinced him that the Scouts needed these same skills to help them accomplish their purpose and make a real difference in their country.

Omondi described the three online courses he took—”Answers to Drugs,” “Communication” and “How to Resolve Conflicts”—as “greatly beneficial,” saying, “My life has changed.”  Omandi formed a group and has trained the members on the three courses.  “We were in the darkness and now we know the light in problems such as communication, answers to drugs and conflict resolution.”

When he found out that an experienced Scientology Volunteer Minister was flying to Kenya to provide seminars, he arranged to have several training sessions for a group of Scouts and these were all held in September 2009. The Scouts’ seminars covered technology developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard on Communication, the Basics of Organization and Scientology Assists—spiritual first aid that helps the individual improve communication with his or her own environment, thus helping overcome trauma and stress and speed recovery from illnesses and injuries.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers were invited back to Kenya to hold a second round of seminars before the end of the year, also to establish a Scientology Volunteer Ministers online training center for which a few dozen computers need to be organized.  At this center young men and women from the slums of Kibera in Nairobi, and Scouts who come to the city from around the country to attend National Scouts Camp, will be able to log onto the Internet and take online Volunteer Ministers training.

“Scouts and the Volunteer Ministers share a lot in common,” said Omandi. “We are assisting youth to be more able and creating sanity in this generation.  Most people have lost hope. But we believe something can be done about it!”

For information on how to donate old computers or laptops to Omondi’s Volunteer Ministers resource center or to arrange seminars for your group or organization, contact the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Coordinator at vm@volunteerministers.org or visit the web site at www.volunteerministers.org.

South LA faith-based and community-based groups combat hate crime through character education

With the FBI reporting violent crime against churches on the rise, St. Mark United Methodist Church in South Los Angeles and the Church of Scientology of Inglewood co-sponsored the Second Annual Hate Crimes Conference on October 27 and a workshop on November 3 to educate leaders of faith-based and community-based groups on underlying causes of anti-religious hate crime.

Held at St. Mark United Methodist Church in South LA, Hate Crime Conference speakers included human rights attorney Barry Fisher; Rev. Chip Murray, former Senior Pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church and now serving as professor of Christian Ethics at University of Southern California; Ms. Tereser Banks, Victorville Federal Prison Warden; Captain Bob Green, commander of LAPD 77th precinct; Mr. Shakeel Syed, head of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California; and Bob Adams of the Church of Scientology International.

From the issues covered in the conference, community- and faith-based groups attending requested further training in programs introduced by the Church of Scientology, resulting in the follow-up workshop.

Pam Roberts, Director of Public Affairs for the Church of Scientology of Inglewood, introduced Joni Ginsberg, Executive Director of The Way to Happiness Foundation International, who conducted a workshop on the newly published educator’s guide to The Way to Happiness, a non-religious moral code based entirely on common sense.  Written by L. Ron Hubbard, the booklet fills the moral vacuum and addresses urgent issues that contribute to increasing violence in today’s society.

Ms. Ginsberg’s presentation covered the precept “Set a good example.”  Those attending will now in turn implement the program in their groups, churches and communities.  Rev. Willie Rollins of Community Missionary Baptist Church in Compton said the information covered in the Hate Crimes Conference and The Way to Happiness workshop will help “build and improve relationships that will bridge the gap between religions and races.”

This year’s Hate Crimes conference grew out of a program initiated in May 2008, held at the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre International in Los Angeles, at which law enforcement and government officials, clergy and educators examined the growing problem of Internet hate crime and ways to improve Internet safety and security.

For more information on Scientology programs that counter violence and intolerance, visit the Scientology web site at www.scientology.org

Scientology Volunteer Ministers from Australia help Sumatra recover from the magnitude 7.9 earthquake Sept. 30.  Their story continues.

The team of Scientology Volunteer Ministers from Australia who traveled to Sumatra to help those whose lives were shattered by the September 30 earthquake carried on their work in the city of Padang and outlying villages. After spending their first day providing assistance at a shelter and local hospital, the team headed out to the villages that suffered the greatest impact from the quake.

They woke at dawn to get to the mountain villages before traffic on the overcrowded roads made travel impossible.  All along the way they were struck by the beauty of the countryside and the stark counterpoint of devastation: every house they passed was damaged if not completely destroyed—walls missing, windows shattered.

All along the route, they saw people camped out beside their ruined homes.  Unwilling to abandon their possessions but afraid to go back inside, they had set up house in tents where they carried on as best they could.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers arrived at a makeshift, unofficial camp where many families had gathered.  The volunteers stopped to help, first by distributing food they had filled their car with before leaving the town; next by showing the families how to deliver Scientology Assists, procedures developed by L. Ron Hubbard that provide relief by addressing the emotional and spiritual factors in stress, trauma, illness and injury.

Continuing up the mountain road they came to a refugee camp where government personnel and volunteers helped them unload the supplies they had brought.

The Volunteer Ministers walked through the camp, finding out what the refugees most needed.  When they described Scientology Assists, many among the homeless not only wanted to experience them but also wanted to learn to deliver them so they could help one another.  And that is exactly what they did.  The change in the tone of the camp was immediate and striking, as it transformed the atmosphere from worry and sorrow to optimism and hope: so many smiles, so many people doing better.

As more people received their Assists the word spread and crowds grew.  Police and military personnel came to see what was going on and they too lined up to receive Assists.   The results were so dramatic the official in charge invited the Scientology Volunteer Ministers to place their banner in front of camp headquarters so everyone would know they could come there for help.

After many hours at the camp, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers headed back to Padang, promising to return.  But their work was far from over for the day. They returned to the hospital where they had worked the day before, where they gave Scientology Assists to those they had helped and new patients as well.

That day, rescue workers found a child who had been buried under debris for two days.  Her body was a mass of bruises and open wounds, broken bones and gangrene. Frantic, she didn’t know where she was; she thought she was still trapped in the rubble.  Her screams of  “Help me, help me, get me out of here”  filled the ward.  In her efforts to free herself she had tried to rip the IV drip out of her arm and nurses had tied her arms to the bed.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers realized the child needed a Locational Assist.  Shock tends to rivet a person’s attention in past painful or distressing incidents.  Locational Assists help orient a person in his or her current environment so the relief trauma victims can experience from this kind of assist is often quite dramatic.

The little girl soon realized where she was, but her pain was so intense she was still beside herself.  The Volunteer Minister continued to help her for several hours, giving her various Scientology Assists, procedures which have come to be known as “spiritual first-aid.”

Gradually, the little girl began to relax. She stopped screaming and flailing and she finally drifted off to sleep—her first sleep since she was rescued and probably since the earthquake struck.  Her brother, at her side since the rescue workers found her, learned how to give her Assists so he could carry on helping her.

Promising to return the following day, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers took their leave at the end of a grueling but rewarding day.

When he created the Scientology Volunteer Ministers program in 1976, L. Ron Hubbard wrote: “A Volunteer Minister does not shut his eyes to the pain, evil and injustice of existence. Rather, he is trained to handle these things and help others achieve relief from them and new personal strength as well.” The Scientology Volunteer Ministers serving in Sumatra truly live up to this standard.

For more information on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers visit their web site at www.volunteerministers.org.

Part 2:  Helping in Times of Disaster

Only days after the Scientology Volunteer Ministers and Cuauhtémoc Scout leaders arrived in Iquitos, Peru, the worst flooding in 15 years hit the area.  Here is the story of what they did to help the people of the region.

A team of Scientologists from Mexico City joined forces with Troop 333 of the Cuauhtémoc Scouts in a Scientology Volunteer Ministers Goodwill Tour to provide the people of the Amazon with precise methods of improving their lives.  Trained in practical techniques developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard they set off for Iquitos, Peru, the gateway to the Amazon, on the last day of April 2009.  Little did they know they were heading into the teeth of a natural disaster.

By mid-April, weeks of heavy rains had caused the Amazon River to reach the highest levels since Peru’s National Meteorology and Hydrology Institute began keeping records.  The National Civil Defense Institute, anticipating what was about to come, urged citizens to map out evacuation routes from their villages to higher ground.

Within days of the Goodwill Tour’s landing in Peru, they were caught up in the region’s worst floods in 15 years.  Engulfed by more than 10,000 victims forced from their homes, the regional Civil Defense director desperately needed help to cope with the evacuees.

The Volunteer Ministers/Scouts team went to work. They organized food and medical supplies distribution in shelters and helped people get settled.  With immediate physical needs under control, they began their real work—providing Scientology Assists to the evacuees. Assists are procedures developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard that address the emotional and spiritual factors in stress, trauma, illness and injury.

For the next two months, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Goodwill Tour worked alongside Civil Defense organizing food distribution, maintaining the shelters and, with the Red Cross, providing first aid.  They also trained local Scouts as Volunteer Ministers who joined the Goodwill Tour team in their invaluable services.

Before long, Civil Defense staff noticed a sharp contrast between the Volunteer Ministers’ shelters and others: the Volunteer Ministers’ shelters were emptying out.  In other shelters evacuees were generally despondent and confused, not certain about the future—and not leaving the shelter to return to their lives.  Those in the Volunteer Ministers’ shelters, on the other hand, were optimistic, even cheerful. The residents worked together in teams, planning construction projects to rebuild their homes, looking for and finding new jobs, and moving back to their homes as quickly as possible.  They were getting on with life.

Word spread further and soon officials from the cities of Nauta and Punchana contacted the Volunteer Ministers and asked them to give seminars on Study Technology and the basics of communication in local schools. Some 1,800 students later, before the Goodwill team continued on their Amazon River tour, the school administration presented them with letters of introduction and recommendation, encouraging other schools to implement the Study Technology and communication program for their students as well.

Also acknowledging the Volunteer Ministers/Scouts effective work, the Civil Defense and the Red Cross presented the Volunteer Ministers with letters of appreciation recommending that their sister organizations in other Amazon River communities welcome the Volunteer Ministers and their valuable services.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers program was established by L. Ron Hubbard in 1976.  Today, nearly 200,000 Scientology Volunteer Ministers worldwide have helped over 1.4 million people in the last year alone.  For more information visit the Scientology Volunteer Ministers web site at www.volunteerministers.org or the Scientology site at www.scientology.org.

Youth for Human Rights Tampa Bay took on a project that brought the Universal   Declaration of Human Rights home to all who participated, specifically Article 3—The Right to Life.

Tampa, Florida—Sponsored by the Church of Scientology of Tampa, Youth for Human Rights of Tampa Bay helped guarantee a vital human right to an entire camp of refugees in Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo—the Right to Life.  They did this by raising enough money to provide bed nets for some 200 refugees.

Why bed nets? Every year nearly one million people die of malaria—the number one killer of African children. Malaria strikes more than 500 million people each year and kills more than a million. In fact, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, every 30 seconds someone dies of malaria somewhere in the world.

Mosquitoes are the leading cause of the spread of malaria and inadequate protection from these insects makes refugees in camps the most vulnerable to infection. Insecticide-treated bed nets provided by the United Nations Foundation’s Nothing but Nets campaign protect potential victims from mosquitoes when these insects are most likely to strike, while their victims sleep.  The Nothing But Nets campaign, created in 2006, has raised more than $27 million for bed nets to save children’s lives.

Asking their friends, “Would you save a life for $10?” the Youth for Human Rights volunteers raised enough funds to send nets to the Bukavu refugee camp that will protect more than 200 refugees from contracting this killer disease.

In 1948, the United Nations called upon member countries to cause the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be “disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.”  Article 3 of the Universal Declaration is the Right to Life.

Programs such as this which involve young people with real-life examples of human rights are the best form of education, and they teach youth another lesson, as expressed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard: “Human Rights must be made a fact, not an idealistic dream.”

For more information on Youth for Human Rights, visit their web site at www.youthforhumanrights.org or the Scientology site.

Scientology-sponsored group helps hundreds of Los Angeles youth commit to living drug-free lives in commemoration of Red Ribbon Week 2009.

The Drug-Free Marshals chapter sponsored by the Church of Scientology of Los Angeles swore in hundreds of youth to live drug-free lives at a ceremony Saturday in honor of the 21st anniversary of Red Ribbon Week.

Red Ribbon Week honors the life of DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena whose death in 1985 was a wakeup call to the dangers of drugs and the drug trade.  Camarena, an 11-year DEA agent working undercover in Mexico, was on the way to breaking up a multibillion-dollar drug pipeline when he was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by Mexican drug traffickers.

In 1988, the National Family Partnership sponsored the first National Red Ribbon Week, with President and Mrs. Reagan its honorary chairpersons.  Community groups, schools and churches hold yearly events to commemorate Camarena’s work and rally support for drug education and prevention.

The Drug-Free Marshals takes its name from the U.S. marshals, a force for good popularized in novels and movies about the American West. The program was founded by the Church of Scientology in Los Angeles in 1993. Since then the program has helped more than 3 million youth worldwide pledge to be drug-free.

The Los Angeles Drug-Free Marshals and their parents “armed” themselves with booklets published by the Foundation for a Drug-Free World that provide information on the most commonly used drugs, such as marijuana, alcohol, heroin, crystal meth, prescription drugs, inhalants and painkillers.

“We need to educate our children about drug and alcohol abuse. Our children are constantly exposed to drugs at school, on television, and in movies, so if we don’t tell them the truth, you can be sure that the drug-dealers will tell them lies. By early intervention we can prevent drug abuse, which also leads to violence,” said Edie Reuveni, President of the Church of Scientology of Los Angeles. “Studies show a direct link between youth involvement in drugs and gang violence. Humanitarian, L. Ron Hubbard said, ‘When children become unimportant to a society, that society has forfeited its future.’ Unless we educate our children and take responsibility for them, we all lose.”

For more information about the drug education and prevention programs sponsored by the Church of Scientology visit www.scientology.org.

Freedom from drugs is the theme with 50 youth sworn in as Drug-Free Marshals at the Pakistani Independence Day celebration in Brussels. 

The Church of Scientology International European Public Affairs Office partnered with the Pakistan Businessmen Forum of Belgium and the Institute for Peace and Development to help 50 Pakistani youth commit to live drug-free lives at this week’s celebration of the 62nd anniversary of Pakistani independence held in the Belgian capital.

More than 600 members of the Belgian Pakistani community looked on while the young people were sworn in as Drug-Free Marshals, taking an oath in the Urdu language to live drug-free lives and help their friends and families do the same.

The Church of Scientology’s presentation of its anti-drug campaign to the Belgian Pakistani community, including three short video clips that raised awareness of the devastating effects of marijuana, alcohol, and heroin, could not have been more timely.  It addressed the very issue raised by last Tuesday’s announcement by Pakistan’s Ministry for Narcotics Control that there are an estimated 620,800 drug addicts in Pakistan, 77% of them heroin users.

In October 1947, just months after Pakistan gained its independence, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, first Governor-General of Pakistan, said, “My message to you all is of hope, courage and confidence. Let us mobilize all our resources in a systematic and organized way and tackle the grave issues that confront us with grim determination and discipline worthy of a great nation.”  Today, one of those issues is drug abuse and addiction.

“In today’s world, independence means more than political sovereignty,” said Marc Bromberg, managing director of the European Public Affairs Office of the Church of Scientology International.  “Freedom from drug abuse and addiction is a significant aspect of an independent life.”

For more information on the anti-drug programs of the Church of Scientology visit the Scientology web site.

Scientology volunteers work with Benin humanitarian group to improve the quality of care for orphans in the City of Djougou

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Goodwill Tour, which travels throughout western Africa offering seminars, courses and one-on-one help for people throughout the region, has provided training to orphanage administrators in the city of Djougou, teaching effective solutions to the challenges they face in improving the quality of care in their facilities.

An estimated 340,000 Benin youth are orphans, with no anticipated decrease in the short term.  In the first half of this decade the number of AIDS orphans—children who have lost either one or both parents to AIDS—in Benin more than doubled, from an estimated 23,000 in the year 2000 to some 62,000 in 2005, and the prediction is that this will only continue to escalate. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Agency for International Development have predicted that by the end of the decade, 20 million children in Africa will lose one or both parents to AIDS.

To effectively address issues related to parentless children, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers partnered with a non-profit group responsible for 28 orphanages in the City of Djougou. The Volunteer Ministers delivered “The Raising of Children” seminar for orphanage administrators, presenting procedures and practices, developed by humanitarian and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, that can be applied to improve the quality of care of children in these institutions.

The orphan care initiative is just one in Benin, an emerging nation whose Gross Domestic Product ranks 159 of 177 nations. The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Goodwill Tour offers seminars and workshops free of charge to any non-profit group or government agency on increasing efficiency, improving communication skills and organizing to increase production.

Scientology volunteers also trained nurses at a local clinic to use Scientology Assists, techniques that provide relief and speed recovery from emotional or physical trauma. They also gave a drug education seminar to a local youth group and a workshop to a women’s association on how to resolve conflicts and save marriages.

In addition to seminars in community locations, the volunteer ministers provided small-group training and one-on-one counseling at their big yellow tent, where visitors could select from 19 courses ranging from “Assists for Illnesses and Injuries” to “Tools for the Workplace.” These free courses are also available online at the Scientology Volunteer Ministers website.

Recently awarded for their work in combating drug abuse and addiction, the Church of Scientology continues its work to provide the truth about drugs

The Church of Scientology of Taiwan is not content to have received the Ministry of Interior’s annual Excellent Religious Group Award for the sixth time.  On the contrary, this award has merely served to inspire young Scientologists to work faster and help their country.

Dedicated to helping the next generation avoid the tragedy of drug abuse and addiction, over the past year alone the Church of Scientology conducted 99 drug education events in Taiwan and distributed 45,150 anti-drug booklets.

Young Scientologists take to the streets during peak traffic, and distribute copies of The Truth about Drugs series of drug education booklets.  They know that when young people know the truth about drugs they will make the right choice to stay drug free.

L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Scientology religion, warned, “The planet has hit a barrier which prevents any widespread social progress—drugs and other biochemical substances.”  The Church of Scientology of Taiwan is committed to reversing this trend and making Taiwan the first drug-free country.

For more information on the Drug education activities of the Church of Scientology, visit the Scientology web site.

Church of Scientology Mission of Redwood City participated in the 71st annual Redwood City Independence Day Parade with a float depicting the human right, Freedom of Expression.

The Church of Scientology Mission of Redwood participated in this year’s Redwood City Independence Day Parade, carrying out the parade’s theme “all things musical” with a float representing the freedom of expression.

The Scientology float sported bright red musical notes and a scrolled-up piano keyboard.  For the entire one and a quarter miles, a team of energetic dancers performed alongside, while other young Scientologists played drums or danced aboard and waived at the thousands of onlookers lining the parade route.

More than 80 groups, clubs and churches participated in the 71st annual Redwood City parade, with bands, floats and equestrian performances.  The parade kicked off a daylong celebration that included a July 4th fun run, a pancake breakfast benefiting the Redwood City Firefighters Association and a battle of the bands.  The celebration culminated with a high aerial fireworks display launched over water from the Port of Redwood City.

The concept of the Scientology float comes from human right number 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  The Church of Scientology Mission of Redwood supports a human rights education group called Youth for Human Rights International, dedicated to providing easy-to-understand human rights education to adults and children so they are able to grasp what fundamental human rights are as aligned with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and to effectively combat violations of human rights.

For more information visit the Scientology site.

Scientology missions throughout Taiwan conduct human rights education programs in local schools.

As Scientology churches and missions are committed to human rights, staff and volunteers throughout Taiwan are carrying out a human rights education campaign so children and teenagers learn what human rights are and what they can do to ensure these rights exist for everyone.

Although the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed and adopted more than 60 years ago by all member nations of the United Nations, human rights abuses abound in countries throughout the world.

The first step in eradicating abuses in human rights is education in what these rights are, as it is impossible to enforce these rights without knowing what they are.

Using a series of short films that convey the essence of each of the articles of the Universal Declaration, these volunteers bring human rights to life to children throughout the nation.

The work they did in just one recent week shows how determined Taiwanese Scientologists are to bring about human rights reforms.

One volunteer held a petition-signing event in the area around the Taichung Primary School, where 107 students signed a petition to support the implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

That same week, another volunteer held a workshop at the Zing-Mei Elementary school where she trained 15 teachers on how to teach their students about human rights.

Yet another Scientologist gave a human rights lecture at the Shia-Ying Junior High School to 600 students. The mother of a student at the Wen-Fu Elementary school lectured 27 students on the subject and a Scientology staff member lectures 123 students at the Chong-Yi Elementary school on the 30 rights laid out by the Universal Declaration.

The work of these Taiwanese Scientologists is part of an international human rights education campaign. Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard wrote, “Human rights must be made a fact, not an idealistic dream,” and Scientologists in Taiwan and in countries around the world are working to make this dream come true.

For more information on the work Scientology is doing to promote human rights visit the Scientology video channel.

Scientologist recognized for outstanding contribution to the culture with the Silver Chimera Award for 2009

Scientology Public Affairs Director for the Church of Scientology of Catania, Italy, Ms. Itria Leone, was awarded the 2009 Silver Chimera Award for the impact she has made on the community through her work as coordinator of the Church’s social reform programs.

The 8th annual International Silver Chimera Awards ceremony was organized by dell’Arte Etrusca to raise awareness of social issues and recognize those who have distinguished themselves through contribution that improves the quality of life. With the theme, “Peace in the World,” the ceremony was held this year at the Museo Castello Ursino in Catania, in Sicily.

Ms. Leone, a native of Sicily, has been coordinating the social reform activities of the Church of Scientology of Catania since 2005. At a grassroots level, she has been working to educate children and teenagers on the effects of drugs, to help them make educated choices and avoid the tragedy of addiction. She also coordinates a chapter of Youth for Human Rights International, through which young people learn their rights and help educate their friends and community on the basic rights to which every individual is entitled.

In accepting her award, Ms. Leone acknowledged L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Scientology religion, for inspiring her to dedicate her life to helping others.

Other recipients of this year’s Silver Chimera Award were: in literature, Dr Sandro Distefano; in medicine, Dr. Ennio Roman; in civil service Dr. Domenico Pinzello, chief representative of the Minister of Interior for the province of Catania, for his many years of effectively combating organized crime, professor Giuseppe Adernò, who has distinguished himself an entrepreneur and cultural leader and Concetta Bufardeci, who has carried on a centuries-long family tradition of representing the country of Spain to Sicily.