Scientology Today

Youth delegates from 30 countries came together with human rights defenders this weekend at the 7th Annual Youth for Human Rights International Summit, in support of making the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights widely known and used.

Youth delegates from 30 countries came together with human rights defenders this weekend at the 7th Annual Youth for Human Rights International Summit, in support of making the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights  widely known and used. Held in the United Nations Palais des Nations in Geneva, the event was also attended by over 60 UN diplomats.

The Summit opened with a procession of the youth delegates carrying the flag of their respective nation, and a welcoming address from Mr. Adalbert Nouga, Founder of the Village Suisse NGO. He praised the Youth Delegates for their commitment and Youth for Human Rights International for promotion of the Universal Declaration and its development of human rights youth advocacy.

Formed in 2001, Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI) is dedicated to fostering tolerance and peace through promotion of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first document to define the fundamental freedoms and human rights in the United Nations Charter. The Declaration, ratified by the UN General Assembly in 1948, has influenced national constitutions, treaties, laws, and human rights institutions the world over.

Growing in popularity each year, the 2010 Summit attracted nearly 1,000 applicants who submitted essays on human rights with evidence of their human rights education advocacy over the past year. The annual event provides YHRI members opportunities to learn about the UN and share their experiences in promoting the UN Declaration. This year a recent UN Resolution proclaiming August 2010-2011 the “Year of Youth” was also honored as part of the Summit’s theme.

The Summit included presentations from each Youth Delegate on their human rights activities; special addresses by human rights NGOs; a panel discussion on the human rights education draft resolution currently under discussion by the Human Rights Council of the United Nations; and presentation of Human Rights Advocate Awards for stellar contribution to human rights education.

The 2010 Summit was co-sponsored by the Uganda Permanent Mission to the UN, the Haiti Permanent Mission to the UN, Village Suisse NGO, Friends of the United Nations, Ariel Foundation International, the African Diaspora Foundation and the Human Rights Department of the Church of Scientology International, which has also sponsored the distribution of millions of YHRI educational materials, including public service messages about the Universal Declaration and the educational film, The Story of Human Rights.

“When the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the aftermath of World War II, it called upon member countries to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded in schools and other educational institutions,” said Dr. Mary Shuttleworth, educator and YHRI Founder. “This remains the most vital cause and challenge of our times.”

_{A team of Scientology Volunteer Ministers traveled to Gonaïves from their Haiti headquarters in Pétionville,  to provide seminars to the people of the city.}

Nancy, an American teacher who spent her summer with the Scientology Haiti Disaster Response Team, traveled with two other Volunteer Ministers to Gonaïves to give seminars to the residents of the town decimated by storms in 2004 and 2008.   There, the local Volunteer Ministers who invited them brought the team to a school and two churches to provide training in Scientology technology.  Here is Nancy’s story:

I had heard that in Haiti when you announce a seminar, 50 people appear out of nowhere to attend.  I thought it was an exaggeration, but that’s exactly how it seemed in Gonaïves, where we filled two churches and a school to capacity for a series of seminars on Scientology assists—techniques developed by L. Ron Hubbard to help people recover from illness, injury, loss and trauma.

The seminars were simple and very practical.  We passed out copies in French of the Scientology Handbook booklets called “Assists for Illnesses and Injuries,” and after a brief demonstration got attendees right into action—practice,  practice, practice until they were confident they could use these techniques and teach them to their friends and families.

_{Seminar attendee reading the Scientology Handbook “Assists for Illnesses and Injuries” booklet.}

In the “touch assist” you tell the person you are helping to feel your finger as you touch them, to help restore communication with injured or affected body parts and the body as a whole.  I learned to say “feel my finger” in Haitian Creole—”santi dwèt mwen”—and acknowledge the person for doing so with a “thank you” (merci), “OK” (d’accord), or “very good” (très bien).

_{Seminar attendees practice the Scientology touch assist on one another.}

I demonstrated how to do the assist and attendees quickly stepped up to drill the technique on each other while I walked around making sure they were doing it correctly, referring them to the right page in the booklet when they had any questions.  The “practice” assists quickly turned into the real thing—those receiving them would suddenly look up with a smile or a sigh or a “Wow, I feel much better.”

Everyone wanted to give and receive them—teenagers, young moms, older men and women—it was amazing to watch them experience relief from pain as their tight muscles relaxed and their joints loosened up.

_{Scientology Volunteer Ministers demonstrate nerve assists, procedures developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard to restore communication with the body.}

Next was the nerve assist, which gently releases the standing waves in nerve channels, improves communication with the body and brings relief. We had them read the directions in the Scientology Handbook booklet and laid blankets down on the floor to demonstrate the assist.  They gathered around to watch and learn and then eagerly got down on the blankets to receive and give these assists themselves.  The relief they gained from these assists was remarkable.

_{Scientology Volunteer Ministers Assist Seminar in Gonaïves.}

Hurricane season rarely spares the people of Gonaïves.  As in Port-au-Prince, where lack of  building codes and standard construction practices are blamed for the inconceivable devastation of the January 2010 earthquake, in Gonaïves, too, destructive “solutions” have exacerbated the effects of natural disasters.

With oil too expensive in this country of poverty, for decades the people of Haiti chopped down their forests for charcoal to cook their food.  By 2004, little more that one percent of the forests remained. With hillsides stripped of trees, three days of heavy rains caused mudslides and floods killing over 2,500 people in Gonaïves.  Another 500 died under similar circumstances in 2008.

Our two days of seminars didn’t change that.  But we put this tool called “Scientology Assists” into the hands of more than 200 people—a skill they intend to use with their friends and families to bring relief and help make life more livable.  And we shared the news that “Something Can be done about it”—the motto of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers.

_{Hundreds of Scientology Volunteer Ministers groups have been established throughout Haiti}

Conditions in Haiti can be improved, technology does exist for raising the bar on ethics and morals, improving literacy, and   accomplishing goals. And this is all available through the Scientology Handbook and the Haiti Scientology Volunteer Ministers headquarters in Pétionville.  Here, hundreds of Volunteer Ministers groups are forming up and thousands are learning to use these tools to create a better future for their city and their country.

 by  Chad Andro  08.18.2010

United Nations’ International Year of the Youth was kicked off by Youth for Human Rights Florida with a petition drive in the Tampa Bay area on August 12 through August 15, gathering over 500 signatures to get human rights taught in schools and reaching hundreds of kids with the human rights message.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon says, “Youth should be given a chance to take an active part in the decision-making of local, national and global levels.”

In the spirit of the International Year of Youth, Youth for Human Rights Florida is stepping up its work, and hopes to take an active part in important decision-making issues by urging leaders in Florida to recognize that children who do not know their rights are vulnerable, and to promote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and cause it to be taught principally in schools and other educational institutions.

To better understand the importance of including human rights education in  schools and universities’ curriculums, a person could reflect on the pain and suffering as well as the millions of innocent lives lost in and before the World Wars. Those were the events that led to the UDHR in 1948.

Ignorance is a fertile breeding ground for abuse. Knowledge empowers.

It doesn’t take a genius to improve the conditions around one. Many people from ordinary backgrounds, ordinary homes and with ordinary means, all with a common determination, could help make this a better world in some small way.

Youth for Human Rights Florida is a secular non-profit organization with the mission to educate about Human Rights both in and out of the classroom. The uniqueness of the program lies in the educational materials created in collaboration with the Human Rights Department of the Church of Scientology International. Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard stated: “Human rights must be made a fact, not an idealistic dream”.  These educational materials include youth-designed videos of the 30 Human Rights according to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, along with a documentary, “The Story of Human Rights”, booklets and an educator’s guide.

Everyone can help ensure human rights are learned by signing the petition at www.youthforhumanrights.org.

Hundreds of Scientologists in Tampa Bay have donated over 300,000 volunteer hours in one year alone

_{Clearwater Scientologists organize the Say No To Drugs Holliday Classic to promote drug-free living.}

Clearwater—A Volunteer Awards Ceremony will be held in the historic Fort Harrison to honor the over 800 Scientologists in Tampa Bay who have donated over 300,000 volunteer hours to raise funds for the needy, rehabilitate inmates in Florida’s prisons, tutor children, and to spread the message of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights and that a Drug Free Life is More Fun. Pat Harney, the Public Affairs Director for the Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization will be presenting the awards. She said, “In 1961, L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology wrote: ‘…a being is only as valuable as he can serve others.’ This is an ideology that Scientologists internationally practice, including those here in the Tampa Bay area and I want them to know that they are appreciated for the tremendous work they are doing to raise the standard of living of the people of Tampa Bay and throughout Florida.”

Harney continued, “Participation in Scientology volunteer groups, however, is not just limited to Scientologists. People of all faiths are welcome to volunteer, and most of our programs count a wide range of community volunteers.”

Here is a partial list of the volunteer groups established and led by Scientologists in the Tampa Bay area:

THE COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTER (CLC): Holly and Brendan Haggerty founded the Community Learning Center to provide kids a safe place to learn and to go to after school for arts programs and sports. The proud parents of four children, they have now expanded their services to include literacy programs for adults. Though based right outside of downtown Clearwater, their after-school tutoring programs are running in Pinellas, Dade, Hillsborough, Alachua, Broward-Deerfield and Broward-Ft. Lauderdale counties. Their 89 volunteer tutors have helped some 500 students in the past year alone.

CRIMINON – FLORIDA: Founded here in Florida about 15 years ago, Criminon Florida is currently run by Clearwater resident Susan Broughton. A chapter of Criminon International, Criminon Florida offers character building criminal rehabilitation programs through correspondence courses in 85% of the 75 prisons in the state and has over 2000 inmates enrolled. This activity is 100% volunteer all the way, volunteer supervisors grade inmates lessons, while others ensure that the course is properly administered.

SAY NO TO DRUGS RACE: 20 years ago, Clearwater resident and world-class runner Sandra Johnson started the Say No to Drugs Holiday Classic to promote an anti-drug message through a road race. A team of 200 volunteers produces this race, which now brings over 1,000 runners a year. From executives to chiropractors, to Boy Scout troops to sponsors, all contribute to making this event a success. Now under the direction of Chris Alexander, the race continues to be a draw for elite athletes and weekend warriors alike.

THE WAY TO HAPPINESS: Written by Mr. Hubbard in the early 1980’s, the Way to Happiness is a non-religious moral code designed to help young and old make decisions about their lives that will enable them to flourish. Here in Tampa Bay, the Way to Happiness Club, led by Clearwater resident Betsy Cramb, distributed 125,000 free booklets and held 52 events last year to educate children in the application of this non-religious moral code to improve their survival and the survival of those around them.

THE CLEARWATER COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS (CCV): What originally started as the Women’s Auxiliary of the Church of Scientology, the Clearwater Community Volunteers holds fundraisers and events throughout the year for the benefit of local charities. These include Winter Wonderland in downtown Clearwater, the Easter Egg Hunt in Coachman Park, and Fashions-with-Flair Fashion show which just held its 8th annual event at the historic Fort Harrison. From these events, CCV is able to contribute tens of thousands of dollars each year to worthwhile local charitable organization such as the Make a Wish Foundation and the Children’s Home of Tampa. Realtor and self-proclaimed Professional Volunteer Pamela Ryan Anderson now heads up this group which utilizes the talents of over 800 volunteers.

FOUNDATION FOR A DRUG FREE WORLD, FLORIDA: Led by Julietta Gil, this group was founded to educate people about the dangers of abusing harmful drugs. This chapter of the international Foundation for a Drug Free World gave 30 drug education lectures in schools throughout Pinellas and Hillsborough County to about 3,500 people in one year. They also offer drug free educational pamphlets, and have distributed 75,000 over the last two years. Through partnerships with a multitude of groups, such as the Dunedin Blue Jays, the Clearwater Downtown Partnership and the Sunscreen Film Festival, youth are sworn in as “Drug Free Marshals” who pledge not only to lead a drug-free life, but also to educate themselves and others about the harmful effects of drugs.

HUMAN RIGHTS AWARENESS: The protection of basic human rights has been a hallmark of the Church of Scientology since its earliest days. Here in the Tampa Bay area, two groups have picked up the torch to educate people about what their rights are and how they can defend them: the Tampa Bay Chapter of Youth for Human Rights and the Human Rights Group. Members of Youth for Human Rights give presentations on the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights in schools throughout Pinellas and Hillsborough County. They have also passed out thousands of booklets and public service announcements depicting the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Headed up by Linda Drazkowski, the Human Rights Group held its fourth annual Walk-a-Thon this March in St. Petersburg’s Straub Park. More than 1,000 people from many different faiths and backgrounds marched in support of human rights.”

To find out more about the work of Scientologists as volunteers log on to www.scientology.org.

_{The Conchoo Dance Group performs a traditional dance, welcoming the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Goodwill Tour to Papua New Guinea.}

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers South Pacific Goodwill Tour was officially welcomed by traditional dancers and local dignitaries at a ribbon cutting ceremony at the Murray Army Barracks in Papua New Guinea June 7.  Tour members and officials spoke of working to tackle illiteracy and poverty through seminars and courses that the tour will provide at local level throughout the island.

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals include improving  literacy as a pivotal target for eradicating poverty, increasing opportunity and guaranteeing other human rights.  Of all Pacific island nations, Papua New Guinea ranks lowest in both literacy and standard of living, with some 30 percent of the population living on a dollar or less a day.  To make inroads against this crucial problem, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Goodwill Tour is providing free seminars and courses to teachers and students across the island.

Established in 1976 by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers program enables people to better cope with common problems and stresses of life and independently improve their situations.  Scientology Churches and Missions provide training in Volunteer Ministers know-how and sponsor Volunteer Ministers activities in their areas.

In 2004, to extend the reach of the Volunteer Ministers program, ecclesiastical leader Mr. David Miscavige launched the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Goodwill Tours, enabling teams of volunteers to bring help to remote areas including South and West Africa, Southern Asia, India, the South Pacific, Eastern Europe, Siberia, the Australian Outback, and Latin America.

For more information, visit the Scientology Volunteer Ministers website.

LOS ANGELES—The Church of Scientology International Human Rights Department presented Founder and President of Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI), Dr. Mary Shuttleworth, a certificate of commendation Saturday, praising her completion of a 13-country journey promoting human rights education.  Coinciding with the 13th International Day of Families, Shuttleworth was acknowledged particularly for empowering children and families through human rights education.

A veteran educator, Shuttleworth founded Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI) in 2001 to activate youth in preserving human rights for others and themselves. “Children who have no concept of their rights are at far greater risk than those who are informed,” said Shuttleworth.

During the three-month trip across Mexico, Central and South America, Africa, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Taiwan, Japan and Hawaii, Shuttleworth lectured to thousands of students at 36 universities and schools on the articles of the United Nations Universal Decaration of Human Rights.  She also met with more than 120 educators, community leaders and national and state human rights authorities to discuss ways of increasing human rights education and awareness.

In addition to carrying out international human rights educational programs and hosting an annual Youth Summit, YHRI publishes educational booklets and DVDs based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an international document ratified by the United Nations December 10, 1948.  YHRI also provides teachers a free Educator’s Kit which can be ordered online at www.youthforhumanrights.org

Scientology Volunteer Ministers from Russia complete journey across 10 time zones helping thousands along the length of the Trans-Siberian Railway

A team of Scientology Volunteer Ministers from Russia have completed a 19,000-mile journey across 10 time zones—a journey that began in Moscow four years ago.  Since August 2006 these volunteers have traveled the length of the Trans-Siberian Railway giving lectures, seminars and courses to some 8,000 individuals on communication skills, study technology, conflict resolution, salvaging marriages, raising happy children and 14 other subjects contained in the Scientology Handbook. In each location they trained Volunteer Ministers and established groups to continue to help their communities.

On August 1, 2006, a 20-member Scientology Volunteer Ministers team boarded the Trans-Siberian Railroad at the first station on the line—the Yaroslavsky station in Moscow—and began a trek across 5,800 miles and 10 time zones to the Pacific Ocean seaport of Vladivostok.  In the summer months they set up their signature yellow tent—a 3,400-square-foot pavilion with lecture rooms, classrooms, and a display describing the Volunteer Ministers program.  In winter months, when temperatures never rose above zero for months on end, they provided their services in rented halls.

Trans-Siberian Goodwill Tour leader Sergey Nikitin said, “We are here to provide effective help—that is our purpose.  Our motto is ‘Something can be done about it,’ and that means not only in times of major disasters and emergencies but in everyday life.”

The Volunteer Ministers delivered lectures and seminars and provided classes and one-on-one help in Perm, Ekaterinburg, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Zheleznogorsk, Ulan-Ude, Chita, Ussuriysk, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, in hospitals, orphanages, government offices, fire station, invalid centers,  veteran associations, businesses, clubs or women’s groups.

To ensure the courses and assistance would continue to be available with neighbor helping neighbor, in each city the Volunteer Ministers trained local residents as Volunteer Ministers and helped them establish groups to sustain the assistance after the tour moved on.

Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard created the Volunteer Minister program in answer to escalating crime and violence in the later 1960s and early 1970s, to provide practical tools for engendering understanding and compassion. The program has expanded to 203,000 Volunteer Ministers worldwide who have served at 185 disaster sites, including Ground Zero after 9/11, the Southeast Asia tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and Haiti.
For more information on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers, visit their website at www.volunteerministers.org.

Marking National Volunteer Week, Scientology Church praises 1,000 volunteers for more than 150,000 hours in Haiti relief effort

The Church of Scientology International, mother church of the Scientology religion, today acknowledged 1,000 volunteers who have served in Haiti since the January 12, 2010, earthquake.

The Rev. Robert Adams of the Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology International presented a special Letter of Commendation to Scientology Volunteer Ministers International director Maria Reyher, citing the life-saving actions of all the volunteers who were sponsored by the Church to travel to Haiti.

“Through the dedicated work of these volunteers, thousands of Haitian lives were saved,” said Rev. Adams in the ceremony at the Church’s international headquarters. These volunteers have logged more than 150,000 volunteer hours giving aid to more than 200,000 individuals in hospitals and clinics, IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps, schools and orphanages.

“It is only fitting that in this National Volunteer Week, we say thank you to these volunteers, Scientologists and non-Scientologists alike, who served with dedication and effectiveness in this time of extreme need in Haiti. Others are alive because they served,” Rev. Adams said.

Volunteer Ministers International director Maria Reyher accepted the Letter of Commendation from the Church on behalf of all 1,000 volunteers, those who went to Haiti and the hundreds who worked behind the scenes making it possible for the Church to charter five flights and a supply ship to bring volunteers and 131 tons of humanitarian supplies to Haiti.

“Volunteers are the backbone in any relief effort, but all the more so in Haiti where help was and still is so desperately needed,” said Reyher. “Every volunteer who served there knows that human beings are alive today because someone was willing to help, despite sometimes extreme personal hardship and discomfort.”

“This award is their award,” Reyher said, announcing that her office is presenting all 1,000 volunteers with copies of the Letter of Commendation—Scientology Volunteer Ministers and those who traveled with the Scientology team to Haiti, including volunteers from AMHE (Association of Haitian Physicians Abroad), BSVAC (Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps), Amerihelp (AHAMES), Hands for the Needy Foundation, A.I.M.E.R. Haiti and the 911 Foundation.

In establishing the Volunteer Ministers program in the 1970s, Scientology Founder 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.” “There has never been a time when this mandate has been more important,” said Rev. Adams.

Reyher confirmed that the Scientology Haiti Disaster Response Team is in Haiti “for the long haul, committed to helping the people of this country rebuild their nation and their lives.”

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

On United Nations Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Scientologists call for widespread human rights education to foster inter-cultural dialogue and greater tolerance

LOS ANGELES—Volunteers from Churches of Scientology in 21 countries including the United States, Canada, France, Denmark, Russia, Australia and South Africa gathered signatures on human rights petitions on March 21, commemorating United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Discrimination.  The petition drives galvanized support for human rights education, promoting the values embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which emphasizes “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”

The Declaration was ratified by the UN General Assembly more than 60 years ago, yet racial and ethnic conflicts fuel wars throughout the world.  Scientologists say the answer is in human rights education.

The United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed each year on the anniversary of the day in 1960 when police opened fire in Sharpeville, South Africa, on a crowd of unarmed Black South Africans, killing 69 civilians who were protesting the repressive apartheid regime.

In a speech  50 years after the Sharpeville tragedy, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, “The United Nations marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on this solemn anniversary to reaffirm our commitment to guard against a repeat of the horrors rooted in racism—from slavery to the Holocaust, from apartheid to ethnic cleansing and genocide.”

In addition to grassroots activities such as petition drives, Churches of Scientology partner with Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI) to carry out a human rights awareness campaign to educate people of all ages on human rights.

“Most people don’t know the rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” said Tracie Morrow, Youth Coordinator for the Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology International Human Rights Office. “Without an understanding of these rights,  people will not demand their own rights, let alone respect and defend the rights of others. Through human rights education we have found young people become much more tolerant and understanding, and many are inspired to become human rights advocates,” said Morrow.

The Church of Scientology has championed human rights for more than 50 years and sponsors the largest non-governmental information campaign to make the Universal Declaration of Human Rights known the world over. The Church’s human rights initiative sponsors groups and activities and has provided its materials to individuals, groups and government agencies in 185 nations.  For more information on the human rights initiative of the Church of Scientology, visit the Scientology website.

Representatives of the Miami Haitian Community Award Scientology Volunteer Ministers for Haiti Disaster Relief Effort

MIAMI (March 19, 2010)- A Scientology-sponsored ship is loading up with supplies for Haiti, including wood-burning stoves from the charity founded by the Lola Poisson-Joseph, wife of the Haitian Ambassador to the United States.  The 896-ton Hornbeam, a former U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker, is transporting more than 165 tons of cargo to Haiti including an ambulance, a school bus and more than 20,000 Meals Ready to Eat.

In a dockside ceremony welcoming the Hornbeam to Miami, North Miami Beach City Council member John Patrick Julien presented the Scientology Volunteer Ministers with the key to the City of North Miami Beach on behalf of Mayor Myron Rosner and a proclamation dedicating a day to a Scientology Volunteer Ministers for their work in Haiti.

Also present were Phillip Brutus, former Florida State Representative and current candidate for U.S. Congress; Daphne D. Campbell, RN, Haitian community leader and candidate for the Florida State House of Representatives; Marleine Bastien, executive director and co-founder of Haitian American Women Association (FANM) and the Haiti Relief Task Force; and Marie Yolaine Ferdilus, co-chair of Haitian Relief Task Force and founder of Legal Protection of America.

The supplies on the “Lifeboat for Haiti,” scheduled to depart for Haiti this coming week, were donated by more than a dozen churches, charities and groups and will be delivered to schools, orphanages, hospitals, churches and disaster response groups in Haiti, including the Notre Dame de la Naiveté Orphanage, AIMER Haiti, Operation Compassion, and the Scientology Haiti Disaster Response Team, which has provided emergency relief services in Haiti for the past two months.

Since the January 12 earthquake, the Church of Scientology has transported more than 360 medical professionals and 300 Volunteer Ministers to Haiti.  The Scientology Volunteer Ministers continue to provide support to doctors, nurses and EMTs, deliver food and water to the IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps, and help with reconstruction, disaster response training and trauma relief.

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

Milan, Italy—A team of eight Italian disaster specialists sponsored by the International Association of Scientologists left for Haiti Monday, March 15.  Departing from Malpensa Airport in Milan, they took with them 2.7 tons of supplies, including more than 1,300 pounds of medical equipment and tents, 815 pounds of food, and 250 pounds of medicine.

The Italian team includes doctors, relief workers and two Scientology Volunteer Ministers trained in disaster response. It is led by veteran disaster specialist Mr. Dino De Pasquale, President of La Pubblica Assistenza Croce Giallo-Azzurra di Torino, a volunteer civil protection group founded in 1992.

The team arrived in Santa Domingo Monday night and are now clearing customs to enter Haiti with their truckloads of supplies.  Once in Haiti they will join the Scientology Disaster Response Team that has served in Port-au-Prince for the past two months.

The Consulate General of Haiti in Milan, Mr. Marco Umberto Pasini, marked their departure with the following message of thanks:

My dear friends,

In this time of great misfortune in my country, I am moved more than I can say by the volunteers who have come forward to help.  Doctors, nurses, emergency medical technicians, volunteers of all kinds have not hesitated to give of their time and skill, setting aside their own personal needs and those of their families.

The immediate emergency in Haiti is now over.  However, what remains are the daily emergencies the people of Haiti have to contend with, emergencies newspapers may not consider to be “newsworthy” but which are possibly even more serious than those reported on in the days following the earthquake.

This is where you come in, working in alignment with the traditions and mores of our people—working with the Haitian people. Fortunately, Haitians are accustomed to rolling up our sleeves and helping ourselves—we don’t give up or surrender to tears in the face of disaster.  And we know you are going there to work, not to be seen on the front pages of newspapers.

You work in the background, planting seeds that will grow and benefit the people in Haiti—seeds of volunteerism. We value your help, your communication, your example to others, and your self-determined contribution no matter the difficulties you encounter.

With sincere wishes for your success,

Umberto Pasini

Consulate General of the Republic of Haiti in Milan, Italy

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.