The coordinator of Latin America Volunteer Ministers activities, himself a veteran of the Scientology Haiti relief effort, is in Colombia from his headquarters office in Mexico City to train and man a Scientology Disaster Response Team to provide relief in the wake of flooding in and around the northern coastal city of Cartagena, which has disrupted the lives of more than 94,000 Colombians, according to the Colombian Red Cross. Additionally, in Manizales, 100 miles west of Bogotá, 150 families were evacuated this week because of landslides.
Volunteer Ministers seminars were held this week at the Centro Cultural de Dianética in Bogotá to train volunteers to assists in these and other disasters.
Australian Scientologist Peter Dunn has served as a Scientology Volunteer Minister in Haiti, Queensland, and Japan.
At 4 a.m. on March 11, 2011, the shock wave from the magnitude 9 earthquake that triggered a 30-foot tsunami off the northeast coast of Japan reached Australia—not as a physical blast but rather as a summons for Scientologist Peter Dunn to return to Japan and help in her time of need.
Dunn, a native of Adelaide who lives in Sydney, had spent the last few months volunteering in the December 2010 Queensland floods, helping residents of Grantham, the town hardest hit, clean up their homes and neighborhoods.
Having lived in Japan for several years when he served as a staff member at the Church of Scientology of Tokyo, Dunn’s strong affinity for the Japanese people and his sense of duty prompted his departure for Japan.
Described by Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan as “the biggest crisis Japan has encountered in the 65 years since the end of World War II," the earthquake and tsunami left more than 20,000 dead or missing, causing an estimated 16.9 trillion yen ($220 billion) in damage and triggering the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
Dunn, who also served for several months in Haiti following the January 2010 earthquake, described the scene he encountered in Japan as very different from what he experienced in Port-au-Prince. Although the destruction was worse and more widespread than in Haiti, Japan rebounded, able to quickly leverage far more resources in the relief effort.
As is the custom of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers, on arriving in Japan they asked what was needed and wanted and set about providing what was asked. They distributed food and water, worked on the search and rescue operation, and manned shelters. They even arranged bicycle donations so junior high school students could travel over roads still closed to cars and trucks to deliver food and supplies to ill, injured, and elderly residents in and around the city of Kesennuma.
While he was prepared to take on any task needed, Dunn is a Scientology spiritual counselor or auditor—“one who listens,” from the Latin audire, “to hear or listen.” So his main function in Japan was to provide Scientology assists. These are techniques developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard that relieve stress and emotional trauma and can speed physical recovery by addressing the spiritual factors in illness and injuries.
“At one shelter, a lady who couldn’t walk when we started rose after a five-minute assist feeling like she wanted to run,” says Dunn. “Another elderly woman was deeply disturbed and told me she expected to die soon. A week later, after daily assists, she had regained her will to live and her enthusiasm and she was bringing life and optimism back to the entire room of 30 survivors in the shelter where she was staying.”
Dunn is proud that in each disaster where he has served, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers have addressed the task at hand with industry, willingness and persistence.
“It has been my honor to help hospital-bound amputees in Haiti, polite and gentle Japanese pensioners in homeless shelters, and rough, tough Aussie farmers,” says Dunn. “And each of them know by our actions that we have simply come to help.”
Introduced to Scientology in 1974 when a friend gave him a copy of Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought by L. Ron Hubbard, Dunn, now 61, found answers he’d long sought about the meaning and purpose of life. What he appreciates most from what he has gained in four decades as a Scientologist is the ability and opportunity to help.
The Scientology Volunteer Minister program was initiated by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard in 1976. There are now hundreds of thousands of people trained in the skills of a Volunteer Minister across 185 nations.
News about the Scientology Volunteer Minister at Blog.VolunteerMinisters.Org!
The Work of the Volunteer Ministers Disaster Response in Ishinomaki, Japan, Continued
One volunteer speaks of her experience on the Ishinomaki Volunteer Ministers Team and the effect it has had on her life.
It has been six months since I came to the disaster area. I have been working in the Ishinomaki team ever since.
There are always some foreign volunteers working with us, which can cause some troubles due to the differences in language and culture, particularly because I couldn’t speak English. Thanks to this team, however, I have learned to understand enough English to get by. I call it my “Disaster Overseas Education,” or “studying abroad in disaster areas.”
Many VMs of various backgrounds came to the disaster area—it was a team of unique and dynamic people.
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Ironically, one thing I gained through this disaster was a better relationship with my father.
I always wanted to improve my relationship with my family, and I wanted to balance family with doing much more for society and humanity.
When the disaster struck I accomplished the second goal—I completely immersed myself in the Volunteer Minister activities. But at a certain point I realized I hadn’t spoken with my parents in quite some time.
I live in Nagano Prefecture, 240 km from my parents in Kyoto, and it sometimes happens that I don’t contact them for quite a while. So when I returned temporarily to Nagano from the disaster zone, I called my parents, only to learn that my 70-year-old father had retired in April.
I have never been able to talk casually with my father, and we rarely speak much when I call. So after talking over the phone, I wrote my parents a letter.
It had always been difficult for me to express my love to them—I even had the idea that I had hated my father but I expressed my gratitude to them—especially to my father—for working to provide for us for such a long time.
I was so surprised when I received a post card from my father in reply. I have written many letters to him—this is the first time he ever replied.
The post card was tightly filled with characters apologizing to me for having acted out of selfishness.
I was so happy to read it, I cried.
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The need for help in the disaster zone continues.
Please join us in our Volunteer Ministers activities. There is a free shuttle bus from Tokyo. You will see what a positive influence you can have on people and society.
A series of Volunteer Ministers Seminars Help More Than 5,000 in Bushenyi, Uganda
This story from the Scientology Volunteer Ministers blog really caught my eye:
At the request of educators in the Bushenyi District of southwest Uganda, in May 2011 a team of Kampala-based Scientology Volunteer Ministers led by Mr. Pedaiah Paul M. Teba, Director of the World Light Caring Mission of Uganda, traveled the 200 miles from the nation’s capital to provide a series of seminars. >>
ANNOUNCEMENT: International Volunteer Minister Week! 20-27 August 2011
August 20—27, 2011, has been designated International Volunteer Ministers Week in honor of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers whose work has become synonymous with unconditional help.
What happened over the past 10 years
Over the past 10 years, since 9/11/01, the bright yellow t-shirts and tents of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers have become established symbols of hope in times of need.
While no one could have predicted the violence with which the events of 9/11 would rip our culture from its social veneer, Mr. David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board of Religious Technology Center and ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion, saw clearly that it was time for Scientologists to redouble their efforts to aid Mankind in reversing society’s dwindling spiral that the cataclysm so suddenly and dramatically brought into focus.
A now legendary, internationally-issued Wake-Up Call inspired unprecedented response. On September 11, 2001 there were 6,000 Volunteer Ministers internationally. Today there are more than 350,000 trained in the technology and skills of Scientology Volunteer Ministers.
The Scientology Volunteer Ministers program was born in 1976 when Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard, noting a tremendous downturn in the level of ethics and morality in society, and a consequent increase in drugs and crime, wrote, “If one does not like the crime, cruelty, injustice and violence of this society, he can do something about it. He can become a VOLUNTEER MINISTER and help civilize it, bring it conscience and kindness and love and freedom from travail by instilling into it trust, decency, honesty and tolerance.”
Throughout the last 35 years, Scientology Volunteer Ministers have provided service in their communities and worldwide, volunteered in cavalcades and Goodwill Tours on five continents, and responded to 187 natural and manmade disasters including:
• Earthquakes in the United States, Japan, Greece, Peru, Chile, Russia, Italy, China, Turkey, El Salvador and Indonesia from 1995 to 2011, with major participation in the South Asian earthquake and tsunami of December 2004, the L’Aquila earthquake of 2009, the Haiti earthquake of 2010 and the Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011.
• Yearly and seasonal hurricane, cyclone and typhoon relief throughout North and Central America and the Caribbean, Indonesia and Thailand. Some 900 volunteers aided victims of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. Volunteer Ministers also routinely rescue people and property from floods throughout the U.S., Europe, Mexico, Pakistan and India.
• Crisis zones, including displaced persons camps in Chechnya 1997, the 1999 Moscow theater siege, Zimbabwe during civil unrest in 2000, Ground Zero in New York and the Pentagon after 9/11, London after the bombing of 2005, Mumbai in the wake of terrorist attacks in 2006.
• In Australian bush fires, Southern California brushfires and at the site of the massive 2009 fire on Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa.
This year Volunteer Minister across 185 nations will honor this year's celebration with events, seminars and tours. Regular updates will be posted on http://blog.volunteerministers.org
There's a very cool video on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers site that gives you tips on how to improve communication and how that can strengthen any aspect of your life.
They also offer a free course on communication skills.>>
Today we helped 2,673 people and delivered 219 assists in Onagawa, Ishinomaki and Kesennuma. While we are expanding and sending teams to assess the damage and the state of the shelters in areas we have not yet visited, we continue delivering assist and helping the evacuees in any way we can.
The head of the Meiyukan shelter in Ishinomaki, who has gained a great deal from the assist the Volunteer Ministers have given him, asked us to teach him how to deliver assists himself, so he can start his own Volunteer Minister group. He and several of his friends learned the procedure and began giving assists to one another.
In Kesennuma, we arrived at a shelter today to a warm “good morning” from several evacuees who seem to be growing much more cheerful as the days go by. Our arrival was announced over the loud speaker in the school-turned-shelter so no one would miss out on receiving assists while we were there.
Several evacuees told one of our Volunteer Ministers that the food at the shelters was tasteless—weak miso soup, white rice and boiled vegetables. The Volunteer Minister promptly called Tokyo Volunteer Minister headquarters to arrange for some tastier dishes. The headquarters contacted a man who owns a supply company in the city, who donated a set of meals to the shelter that very day. We were able to distribute the meals to grateful evacuees along with other needed supplies such as diapers, shampoo and vitamins.
Some of our Volunteer Ministers have now been invited to stay at the Kaizo-ii Buddhist temple in Kesennuma, after the chief priest learned of the work we are doing to help the people of the area.
We just welcomed six new Volunteer Ministers to the Japan team! Four are headed to the disaster zone and two will work from the Tokyo headquarters.
We are also pleased to report that a new Volunteer Minister Logistics Base has now officially been established in Tokyo and provides working space for 30 Volunteer Ministers to handle logistics for the disaster areas. Volunteer Ministers arriving in Tokyo can settle and brief at the Base before deploying to the North of Japan.
Last week two Volunteer Ministers vans left Tokyo to deliver sleeping bags and mats to shelters in Onagawa and remain in Northern Japan for services. Both are now in high demand daily to deliver food and water to remote shelters around the city of Sendai.
Onagawa
Life seems to be starting up again here the last few days. When we came about 10 days ago, many people spent most of the day in bed. The feeling was one of grief.
On Friday we cleaned out the shelter building and regorganized spaces for each family! Everyone participated and we created the most amazing village out of cardboard in the shelter hall.
Today we got the elementary schools going again and also here life is finally beginning again.
Watari
Yesterday, 2 April 2011, our Volunteer Ministers in the Myiagi Prefecture split into two groups. One went to a shelter that had been set up in the Osaka Elementary and Junior High and the other went to Yoshida Elementary and Watari Elementary schools. In the past 48 hours we helped 2,026 people in these shelters, gave 617 assists* and trained 64 people in Volunteer Minister technology.
One man who was very upset received an assist. In recounting what happened to him when the tsunami hit, he suddenly began to chuckle. He realized, he said, “I can’t really do anything but laugh about it!”
One elderly woman received an assist in Shishiori Junior High School and told the Volunteer Minister with a huge smile on her face that she felt like she could “float down the stairs.”
A Volunteer Minister came across a boy in the shelter who looked bored, so she taught him how to deliver assists. The next thing she knew, he had helped four people with assists.
Also our translator Peter learned how to deliver assists and he was completely blown away that he could use this to help people. He’d never done anything like it before.
Kesennuma
Three young Volunteer Ministers went to Hashikami School in Kesennuma City and met with a teacher who welcomed them and invited them to deliver a lecture on Assists to 25 students. The students were interested throughout and at the lecture’s end, they grouped in seven Volunteer Minister teams and first delivered assists to each other and then to 175 refugees.
The students were amazed at what they were able to do with assist technology, especially when one woman who hadn’t been walking began doing so after an assist. The look on the student’s face was priceless. The brand new Volunteer Minister had only just learned about assists herself.
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*Assist: L. Ron Hubbard developed numerous applications of his discoveries on the mental and spiritual aspects of a person's physical difficulties, one of them being the technology of Assists. An Assist is an action undertaken to help a person confront his physical difficulties, overcome trauma, ease discomfort and speed recovery. For more information go to: www.volunteerministers.org/solutions/assists.html.
Churlya Wurfel, for example, who has saved lives in disasters throughout the South Pacific.
If the New Yorker was really interested in news, why didn't they interview a single Volunteer Minister about the help they give. Or a single person who benefited from their help.
CHURLYA WURFEL DEFIES CLASSIFICATION, BUT EVERYTHING SHE TOUCHES THRIVES
| AUSTRALIA • November 13, 2010 |
A true citizen of the world, fashionista Churlya Wurfel—born and raised in a Chinese family in Indonesia, married to a German and living in Australia—reaches out to help countries throughout the Pacific Rim.
There is more to Churlya Wurfel than exquisite apparel and glamorous soirées.
True, she owns the Villoni Night Fashion Boutique and is famous for showcasing her new line of eveningwear on the trendiest runways Down Under. And the magnificent gowns on the Miss World Australia contestants often sport her label.
But aid workers and disaster victims in Indonesia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines know her too—as the petite woman in the bright yellow Scientology Volunteer Ministers T-shirt, helping in the wake of floods, tsunamis and typhoons.
And Wurfel was awarded the coveted Freedom Medal of the International Association of Scientologists for training the Red Cross of her native Indonesia in Scientology disaster response technology.
Although her husband became a Scientologist several years earlier, it was not until a personal calamity in 1983 that Wurfel herself embraced the religion.
“My three-year-old daughter was in Indonesia visiting her grandmother when we got the kind of phone call every mother dreads,” says Wurfel. “My child was in a hospital 1,700 miles away, dying of pneumonia—she had stopped breathing on her own.”
The Wurfels took the next flight to Java and her husband began giving their daughter Scientology assists—techniques developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard that address the mental and spiritual component in illness and injuries.
“Within a few hours of his beginning these assists, her temperature dropped to normal,” Wurfel says.
The next day their daughter was able to stand and walk. The Wurfels brought the toddler home and within a week the little girl had recovered completely.
“Seeing firsthand the power of this technology, I decided to see if it could help me too,” says the mother of three and grandmother of two.
And indeed there was something she suffered from herself—the loss of her grandmother when Wurfel was just a child. From that point forward she was never really a happy person.
“I addressed my grandmother’s death in a Dianetics counseling session. It completely changed my life,” says Wurfel.
That was 27 years ago, and Wurfel, now 56, has studied and used Scientology ever since. She has raised three children, built her boutique into one of the most elegant and prominent in the country, and helped thousands recover from trauma in disaster zones. And she now also serves as a staff member at the Church of Scientology of Sydney.
“I use Scientology in every aspect of my life,” she says. “I have become a better mother, a better wife and a better executive—in short, a better person.”
2010: SCIENTOLOGY VOLUNTEER MINISTERS PROVIDE AID WORLD OVER IN THE WAKE OF DISASTER
Over the course of the past twelve months, hundreds of thousands trained in the skills of the Scientology Volunteer Minister reached out and helped others in times of disaster. Their actions embodied the words of Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard: “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.”
In the tradition of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers, who worked tirelessly at Ground Zero in the months following 9/11, Scientologists took temporary leave of their homes, families and jobs in 2010 to help rescue the lives and livelihoods of victims of natural and manmade disasters.
Bringing the disaster relief techniques that have made the Volunteer Ministers’ bright yellow tents and T-shirts a symbol of effective help at more than 200 disaster sites worldwide, in 2010 they provided physical and spiritual aid to victims and rescue workers at more than a dozen major disaster sites.
January 2010 – Haiti
The defining moment of 2010 Volunteer Minister service began just before 5 p.m. on January 12 when a 7.0 earthquake sent shockwaves through the nation of Haiti. In reply, on January 16, the Church of Scientology sponsored a chartered transport from JFK, carrying hundreds of doctors, nurses and EMTs—as well as Volunteer Ministers, to provide support services for medical teams. In the weeks following, the Church sponsored four additional chartered flights for volunteer medical teams. Owing to logistical bottlenecks to the island, the Church further sponsored the chartering of a former Coast Guard vessel to transport hundreds of tons of medical supplies, equipment, food, water and clothing. Additional Scientology Volunteer Ministers accompanied each charter, to provide support in makeshift hospitals, camps for the homeless and orphanages. Volunteer Ministers also provided care to the injured and displaced, delivering “assists” to relieve spiritual and emotional trauma.
In total, working in liaison with international relief organizations, Volunteer Ministers from 22 nations stepped forward to answer the call for help in Haiti. As Vincent Gennaro, Assistant Chief of Surgery for Project Medishare’s Haiti Relief Effort put it, “No matter what we asked Volunteer Ministers to do—it didn’t make any difference. They didn’t ask any questions. They just did it.”
February 2010 – Chile
On February 27, an 8.8 earthquake devastated Chile, triggering three successive tsunami waves that struck coastal cities. Within hours, Chilean Volunteer Ministers were on the ground distributing supplies to the affected, in tandem with the Red Cross. Later joined by Volunteer Ministers from Mexico and the United States, they established their base outside Conception, the city hardest hit by the disaster. Their operation focused on providing logistical aid to disaster sites, from Donihue to Coltauco. Volunteer Ministers additionally teamed with naval personnel from the base in Vina del Mar. In providing emotional succor, more than 4,800 Chileans received help from Scientology Volunteer Ministers.
March 2010 – Uganda
In March, torrential rains in eastern Uganda touched off a series of mudslides, devastating villages. In response, Volunteer Ministers travelled from across the border in Kenya, assisting with search and rescue operations for unaccounted villagers. The Volunteer Ministers further assisted the displaced and injured living in “tent camps” housing nearly 30 thousand in the aftermath.
May 2010 – Nashville
On May 1, in the wake of Tennessee thunderstorms, the Cumberland River crested at 52 feet in Nashville—a level not seen since 1937. Volunteer Ministers mobilized from Nashville’s Church of Scientology, joining forces with local Red Cross. Volunteer Ministers also teamed with Hands-On Nashville, a local volunteer disaster unit, to provide on-the-ground coordination for relief efforts. Volunteer Ministers further established and operated Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) food banks and vaccine stations in community centers across the city, in addition to assisting the National Guard with emergency ration distribution.
May 2010 – Guatemala
The Pacaya volcano erupted in Guatemala on May 28, with rising plumes 6 miles into the air. Guatemalan Volunteer Ministers immediately provided assistance in the shelters at Amatitlan. In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Agatha’s floods and landslides, Volunteer Ministers attended evacuees in shelters at Villa Canales and San Miguel Escobar. For their efforts, Volunteer Ministers earned the respect and recognition from CONRED (National Coordination for the Reduction of Disasters) and were placed on their rolls of disaster relief forces.
July 2010 – Pakistan
When floods struck the Indus River Basin, it stood as Pakistan's worst natural disaster in memory. Volunteer Minister teams from Karachi escorted and cared for displaced children, provided much-needed rations and supplies, and airlifted emergency medical teams to bring antibiotics and fresh water to those afflicted.
September 2010 – New Zealand
When New Zealand was hit with a 7.1 earthquake, Volunteer Ministers from Auckland ran relief logistics in partnership with the local Red Cross.
September 2010 – Northern California
In San Bruno, California, San Francisco-based Volunteer Ministers were among the first responders to a gasline explosion. They worked shoulder-to-shoulder with civil defense personnel to help clean up debris and man emergency ration lines.
_______________________
Through the course of providing disaster relief in the past 10 years, Scientology Volunteer Ministers have trained and partnered with more than 800 organizations, including the Red Cross, FEMA, National Guard, Salvation Army, Mexico’s International Rescue Brigade, Boy Scouts and hundreds of local, regional and national groups and organizations, giving freely of their skills, their care and compassion.
New 2010 Volunteer Minister Website
The Volunteer Ministers not only serve at worst-case disasters, but stand ready to provide help with everyday “disasters.” To expand this help, 2010 saw the launch of a new website: volunteerministers.org. The site content has been translated in 17 languages and includes online training in assist technology, as well as practical skills to help individuals in need—including the resolution of marital strife, rearing children, overcoming drug addiction and much more.
_______________________________
The Scientology Volunteer Minister program was initiated by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard in 1976. There are now hundreds of thousands of people trained in the skills of a Volunteer Minister across 185 nations.
The last decade has been one of the most turbulent in our history. Opposing ideologies, violent revolutions and a frail social economic structure have subjected more than one-third of the world’s population to oppression, poverty and brutal human rights violations. Terrorism and a global economic crisis rips at the very fabric of society, propagating a mindset governed by hysteria, fear and anxiety.
However, emotional stress doesn’t halt at the borders of war-ravaged nations. Right at home the epidemics multiply—from drug abuse, delinquency and broken homes, to illiteracy, unemployment and the stress attendant to these problems. Under these conditions, civic administrators and human services personnel bear a tremendous burden.
But there are answers—real ones that work—delivered by Volunteer Ministers whenever and wherever needed with remarkable results. These answers come from the greater body of Scientology technology by L. Ron Hubbard and are intended for people of all beliefs.
Over 200,000 strong and spanning every continent of Earth, Volunteer Ministers work directly with community leaders, officials, support personnel and citizens to bring order and real help no matter the situation.
The Volunteer Ministers also reach out with traveling Cavalcades, bringing their help into major cities and communities throughout the world. Visiting a new city each month, these Cavalcades contact thousands at a time.
Inside the familiar yellow tents, anyone can get one-on-one assistance to address whatever troubles they might be facing.
While beyond their daily work in addressing societal ills, the Volunteer Ministers are among the first to arrive when disaster strikes. Trained to respond to emergency situations, they provide whatever is needed to immediately alleviate suffering and bring order quickly. And because the technology they apply is simple and effective, they quickly train others so they too can provide help.
With their organizational skills and ability to bring order, as well as their effective help to victims and emergency personnel, thousands have joined their ranks and Volunteer Ministers have emerged as one of the largest independent relief forces on Earth.
They have also become a global force delivering effective solutions in disaster zones that don’t make the headlines: in homes and schoolrooms, businesses and neighborhoods. They are on call on a 24/7 international Volunteer Minister Hotline.
Anyone, of any belief, who wants to do something to improve conditions around them may become a Volunteer Minister by learning the simple techniques offered by the free courses on this site. Equipped with these solutions, a Volunteer Minister can help build a better world by restoring order, kindness and decency wherever needed.
The UN Human Rights Commission has named Haiti as one of the key countries where refugees is an issue. This weekend is the UN World Refugee Day.
Scientology volunteers in Haiti are not just distributing food and water in the IDP camps, they are training people using the Scientology Handbook, to help them survive there and build something better.
At the end of June the 22nd anniversary of the maiden voyage of the Freewinds will be celebrated aboard the ship.
After the event is held, videos of each of the four main nights are broadcast at events throughout the summer at Scientology Churches and Missions around the world. They contain important briefings by David Miscavige on what is going on in Scientology today, and what we can expect over the coming year.
Each year for the past several years, this has including briefings on the work of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers, and I'm sure this year will be no exception.
Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers program, which was created by L. Ron Hubbard in the 70s, has really taken off.
At the Volunteer Ministers blog you can get up to date on the work of the VMs in Haiti. What they have done there has literally saved lives.
Scientology Volunteer Ministers arrived in Haiti the first week after the earthquake in January, but new volunteers continue to arrive, and they are training Haitians in and around Port-au-Prince in Scientology technology who in turn are opening new groups all around the island.
The Church also sent a ship down with supplies, and this shows the arrival of the ship in P.A.P., being unloaded by a team of Scientologist VMs from about 15 nations including 100 Haitian nationals.
The Scientology Volunteer Ministers program was developed in 1976 by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard. In the wake of 9/11, David Miscavige greatly expanded the scope of the program, which now includes Goodwill Tours throughout the world.
Scientology Volunteer Ministers pledge to help build a brighter future for Haiti on country's Flag Day
Flag Day in Haiti May 18 took on new significance this year as Haitians and friends from around the world reaffirmed their commitment to rebuild the country from the January 2010 earthquake.
In this spirit, 100 Haitian Scientology Volunteer Ministers, joined by dozens of Volunteer Ministers from abroad, made the hour-long march from the Port-au-Prince suburb of Carrefour to the city of Leogane Tuesday, May 18, waving the Haitian flag with its motto "unity and freedom" and carrying bright yellow banners proclaiming "Something can be done about it"-the motto of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers.
In the village of Mariani on the outskirts of Leogane, Scientology Volunteer Ministers from Canada, Russia, the Ukraine, Mexico, Hungary, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark and the United States joined their Haitian colleagues in the Haitian national anthem while Max Beauvoir, Haiti's main voodoo leader, raised the Haitian flag at the Volunteer Ministers tent where volunteers provide free training and one-on-one help.
Haitian Flag Day marks the day in 1803 when native leaders ripped the white field out of the French "tri-color" flag, forming a symbol of unity in their decade-long fight against French oppression that kept 500,000 enslaved on the island. Eight months later, this became the official flag for the new nation of Haiti.
Despite the passion and determination of the Haitian people, which made Haiti the only nation ever formed of a successful slave revolt, even before the January earthquake Haiti was the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Some 300,000 Haitian children were orphaned or living without parents. Of 182 nations on Earth Haiti ranked 125th in literacy and 158th in Gross Domestic Product per capita.
These factors and a host of other social issues indicate it was not just an act of nature that devastated Haiti in January. These issues are what the Scientology Volunteer Ministers address in their training.
For example, there is no official building code in Haiti, and the city of Port-au-Prince was doomed to collapse. Anne Kiremidjian, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, described it in these terms: "Even a moderate sized event would have toppled these buildings down. This earthquake was a very large event and they had absolutely no chance of standing up."
While Scientology Volunteer Ministers continue to do relief work and construction projects in Haiti hospitals, clinics, orphanages and refugee camps, they are working on a longer-range program to tackle the underlying social issues that brought Haiti to the brink of destruction and ensure the country emerges from this disaster a strong society whose people have the opportunity they deserve.
Scientology Volunteer Ministers have opened 300 Volunteer Ministers groups in Haiti and are training government agencies, community and religious leaders, educators, students and scouts. With so many traumatized, they begin with a seminar called "Assists for Injuries and Illnesses," containing technology developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard to handle the emotional and spiritual effects of loss and injury. They follow up with training in study technology to increase literacy and the ability to apply one's education. Then come workshops in the basics of organization, planning, and communication skills, to ensure the people of Haiti have the tools they need.
In developing the Scientology Volunteer Ministers program in 1976, L. Ron Hubbard wrote, "It is important to understand bad conditions don't just happen. The cultural decay we see around us isn't haphazard. It was caused. Unless one understands this he won't be able to defend himself or reach out into the society with effectiveness." To learn more about the courses and seminars visit the Scientology Volunteer Ministers website at {www.volunteerministers.org/train}
Scientology Russia Goodwill Tour Completes 19,000-Mile, Four-Year Trans-Siberian Journey
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.
The Scientology Handbook is the text for the training of Scientology Volunteer Ministers. It includes 19 subject such as learning how to learn, how to help people withdraw from drugs or alcohol, how to salvage a marriage and reestablish a relationship with your kids. Very simple to read and study. You can also take free online courses through the Volunteer Ministers web site.
The Scientology Volunteer Ministers web site offers free online training in the technology the Scientology Volunteer Ministers use to help others improve conditions in their lives--courses covering such things as improved communication, handling stress at work and in life, and Scientology assists, which help speed healing by handling the mental, emotional and spiritual factors that precipitate and prolong illness and injuries. This technology is covered in the Scientology Handbook
VOLUNTEER MINISTERS PROVIDING EFFECTIVE HELP ANYWHERE AND EVERYWHERE
In answer to escalating crime and violence through the latter 1960s and early 1970s, L. Ron Hubbard founded the Volunteer Minister program. It was designed to provide practical tools for engendering understanding and compassion. Moreover, those tools were expressly conceived for use by Scientologists and non-Scientologists alike. Thus was born a broad-based movement of individuals from all walks of life dedicated to providing on-site assistance to communities around the world.
Through the last 30 years, Scientology Volunteer Ministers have provided aid and emergency services at more than 128 worst-case disaster sites. Today, they are among the world’s most recognized independent relief organizations, and have trained tens of thousands of new volunteers on their methods of bringing help in the worst of times and conditions.
As L. Ron Hubbard wrote, "A Scientology Volunteer Minister is a person who helps his fellow man on a volunteer basis by helping restore purpose, truth and spiritual values to the lives of others. A Scientology Volunteer Minister does not shut his eyes to the pain, evil and injustice of existence."
Volunteer Ministers live by the motto that “Something can be done about it.”
Scientology-sponsored Ship Brings More Than 100 Tons of Supplies to Haiti for the Relief Effort
A Scientology-sponsored “Lifeboat to Haiti” arrived in Port-au-Prince April 8, carrying more than 100 tons of urgently needed supplies including medicine, medical equipment, an ambulance, food, cooking stoves and tents.
Scientology-sponsored Lifeboat for Haiti at the dock in Port-au-Prince
In the first weeks following the earthquake, the Church of Scientology sponsored five chartered flights, bringing more than 440 doctors, nurses and emergency medical technicians and 280 Scientology Volunteer Ministers to the island, helping more than 200,000 people through their combined efforts in the first two and a half months.
The Scientology Volunteer Ministers are in Haiti for the long haul, not only providing disaster relief but also working with local government and civic groups and community leaders who are determined to improve the quality of life for all Haitians.
Scientology Volunteer Ministers work in the IDP (Internally Displaced Person) camps providing food, water, and other supplies and training people in Scientology Assists—techniques developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard that help the individual overcome the emotional and spiritual aspects of trauma and stress.
The Volunteers Ministers are also establishing a base in Petionville to provide free training to individuals and groups including teachers, students, disaster relief groups and government agencies. This training addresses the underlying social issues and skills needed to bring about lasting improvement. Seminars and courses include subjects such as communication skills, the basics of organizing and study technology. So far, they have provided seminars and classes to over 8,000 local residents.
For more information on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Haiti Response Team, visit their web site at blog.volunteerministers.org.
