SCIENTOLOGY VOLUNTEER MINISTERS OF MEXICO COMPLETE SEARCH AND RESCUE TRAINING
A team of Scientology Volunteer Ministers returned to Mexico City this week after completing a rigorous course of training in disaster search and rescue in various locales around Mexico. The training was supervised by Los Topos, the renowned Mexican search and rescue team featured in a National Geographic documentary on the Japan tsunami of 2011, and other top professionals. The purpose: to leverage experience and expertise gained to direct the activities of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Disaster Response in the worst possible disasters.
The Volunteer Ministers were inspired to participate in this month-long training program through their association with Los Topos. The alliance between the two groups began in Haiti, where they worked together to deal with the devastation after the January 2010 earthquake. Since then, Los Topos volunteers and executives have completed Volunteer Minister training at the National Church of Scientology of Mexico. And Los Topos carried out much of the training program the Volunteer Ministers have now completed.
But it was a personal experience in Colombia last year that brought home the urgency of carrying out a program like this.
“When we were in Colombia to help with the floods last year, I realized the importance of disaster prevention,” says Alejandro Del Llano, who directs the Scientology Volunteer Minister activities for Latin America. “We were evacuating buildings under the direction of CINAT—National Circle of Aide Technicians—the top disaster response team of Colombia and one of the best in Latin America. We found and evacuated an entire community of 6,000 residents, completing the operation just before a nearby mountain collapsed in a mudslide that buried the entire neighborhood. We saved thousands of lives. This experience brought home to us the urgency of gaining full competence in every possible disaster response skill.”
The Volunteer Ministers’ training began with a week-long hospital course in March 2012 in the classifying and handling of urgent medical situations. It included learning to recognize the levels of trauma and assessing priorities and the appropriate medical procedure to use for each. They trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), procedures for minor and major injuries, and the care of children, pregnant women and the elderly.
Next came training in civil protection for emergencies occurring inside buildings or other structures. This included organizing and executing evacuations, establishing safety zones and assessing the risks of a damaged building to those inside and the surrounding area.
The Scientology Volunteer Ministers then completed a course in underwater search and rescue where they learned to dive in rivers and at sea under extreme conditions including frigid temperatures, strong currents, and low or no visibility.
“We had to dive into waters where you literally could not see anything,” says del Llano. “We overcame our natural fears and are proud of the competence we gained, which makes it possible to help others in ways we were never able to do before.”
With these skills learned, they trained in initial assessments of disaster sites, including immediate care of victims and damage control—how to prevent loss of lives by spotting and evacuating dangerous zones or buildings likely to collapse.
Training in search and rescue under collapsed structures came next. This included analyzing the condition of structures, learning to penetrate and advance inside and underneath buildings, and tracking and extracting victims.
In a private hospital under the supervision of the emergency medical technician in charge of civil protection, they learned CPR, rapid diagnosis of external injuries, and how to transport and remove injured persons from confined spaces such as cars and rooms.
Part way through their training, the volunteers were invited to deploy as part of the civil defense unit to serve when more than 3 million converged for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI in the city of Silao in Guanajuato, Mexico.
Del Llano knows there is more to learn, but the training completed gives the team the immediate expertise needed to contend with the situations most likely to be dangerous in disaster zones.
“We have immersed ourselves in a previously unknown world of professional disaster response,” he says. “Coupled with our knowledge of the technology contained in theScientology Handbook, we are now able to perform an important service in times of disaster.”
The Scientology Volunteer Minister program was initiated by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbardin 1976. There are now hundreds of thousands of people across 185 nations trained in the skills of a Volunteer Minister.
Volunteer Ministers in Thailand are carrying on with relief to victims of the worst flooding to hit that country in 50 years.
While food waters are receding in many parts of the country, 16 central and four southern provinces are still affected, and flash floods and landslides again hit some of the southeastern provinces this week.
Distributing food and supplies to those in shelters and by boat to those stranded in their homes by the floods, the Volunteer Ministers from the Church of Scientology Mission, working in collaboration with other volunteer groups and agencies, have helped some 11,000 people.
The Scientology Volunteer Ministers (VMs) are the help force of the Church of Scientology, founded by Scientology-founder L. Ron Hubbard in the 1970s:
"A Volunteer Minister is a person who helps his fellow man on a volunteer basis by restoring purpose, truth and spiritual values to the lives of others."— L. Ron Hubbard
VMs are trained in disaster response techniques but also in general administration and to give help to others in all situations in life. They VMs exist since the 1970s but after a "Wake Up Call" triggered off by the 9/11 terror acts they now number more than 203,000 all over the world. VMs are regularly despatched to disaster zones to give help, hundreds of thousands of man hours since 2001. They proudly call themselves the biggest disaster relief force on earth and I believe they are. Every VM is a volunteer who quits his or her job for several days, weeks or even months to help others in need.
Scientology Volunteer Ministers live by the motto:SomethingCanBe Done About It."
Scientology Volunteer Ministers Goodwill Tour Bringing Positive Change to Mali
It is said that when Sultan Mansa Musa made his pilgrimage from Mali to Mecca in the 14th century, he brought with him so much gold and treasure that for centuries the legend prevailed that the roofs of Timbuktu were covered with gold and its rivers ran over beds of precious metal—a far cry from the Mali of 2011, with 73 percent of its 14.5 million people living on less than a dollar a day.
The courses and seminars of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Goodwill Tour in Mali provide tools to help overcome economic and educational barriers and their oppressive consequences.
A Mali student recently completed all 19 Volunteer Ministers courses at the Tour’s bright yellow tent, and wrote:
“These courses are the life and the love that a person in public life or a civil servant cannot do without. …[They] have given me the tools not only to mobilize people, but to organize them to perform the actions that lead to success. I am very thankful for having had the opportunity to learn basics which can be used to make dreams come true."
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
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.
Scientology Volunteer Ministers described on the new Scientology Newsroom site!
There's a new Scientology Newsroom site at www.scientologynews.org Lots of great data, and this description of the VM program:
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 over 200,000 Volunteer Ministers worldwide who have served at 187 disaster sites, including Ground Zero after 9/11, the Southeast Asia tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and Haiti.
Volunteer Ministers have trained and partnered with more than 1,000 different groups, organizations and agencies including the Red Cross, FEMA, the National Guard, and police and fire departments. The Volunteer Ministers Corps motto is “Something can be done about it.”
In addition to assisting people in need in their own communities, Scientology Volunteer Ministers have helped hundreds of thousands in major cities around the world and in far flung outposts. Our 18 Continental Volunteer Minister traveling centers (marquee yellow tents) and have toured through 170 countries covering over 300,000 miles, including a Volunteer Ministers barge traveling on the Amazon River, two centers traveling throughout Western and Central Africa and a traveling center in the outback of Australia.
The Scientology Volunteer Ministers also routinely work side by side with other emergency response and relief organizations helping to save lives and bring order to disaster zones.
In 2001, more than 800 VMs responded to the World Trade Center disaster and provided spiritual and practical aid to emergency workers for many weeks. They have also been an integral part of rescue and salvage efforts at the sites of hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and fires.
More than 500 VMs from 11 nations served in relief efforts in Southeast Asia, India and Sri Lanka in 2005 after the Tsunami. Their work was reported on by international media including CNN, The Economist, Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
The service of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers has been recognized by politicians, police, military, other relief agencies and civic authorities. A mayor in Louisiana whose city had been hit by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 said, “I was very happy when more than 900 of your Church Volunteer Ministers arrived in my city from all over the world and became a major force in bringing physical and spiritual help to those in need.”
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.
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.
Scientology Volunteer Ministers are loading former US Coast Guard Ship for take-off to Haiti
The 896-ton ship will travel 84 hours to Haiti.
The former US Coast Guard ship "Hornbeam" at its arrival in Miami on 20 March 2010.
22/23 March 2010: Update on the Hornbeam:Monday afternoon in Miami final preparations for the 1,500- mile trip of the former US Coast Guard Ship were done. Several Scientology Volunteer Ministers helped to load over 170 tons of supplies, including wood-burning stoves donated by the charity of wife of the Haitian Ambassador to the U.S. Tomorrow an ambulance and a school bus will be loaded on board and the ship will be tugged out to open sea and leave for Haiti.
On arriving in Haiti later this week all supplies will be distributed to hospitals, schools, orphanages and charities. The ship, the Hornbeam, will be tugged up the Miami River and out to open sea on Wednesday, March 24. The ship also brings Scientology Volunteer Ministers to join the Scientology Disaster Relief team, which has been in Port-au-Prince providing relief since January.
In the past weeks the Mexican Scientology Volunteer Minister team in Haiti has given seminars to more than 5,000 persons and trained more than 1,000 in Assist technology. They also organized and distributed food and water to more than 10,000 persons. One of their special projects was to help re-open a big Christian school.
For the last several weeks a team of Scientology Volunteer Ministers from Mexico have been helping the FMA school (Filles de Marie-Auxiliatrice) reestablish order and get back into action. The earthquake affected nearly every person in Port-au-Prince. So many died, and most of those who survived were injured or left homeless. Many schools collapsed killing the children and teachers who were there. Those like the FMA school that were not destroyed by the quake have been closed since January 12, with the teachers and administrators taking care of the immediate needs of their families.
The school is run by a Catholic order, the Silesian Sisters. Over the past several weeks the Volunteer Ministers have been training the sisters on basic Volunteer Ministers assist technology, which includes seminars and courses on communication, how to improve relationships, how to establish order and organize an area and Scientology assist technology.
Scientology assists are techniques developed by L. Ron Hubbard that address the spiritual and emotional factors in illness and injuries, and thus speed healing. Once trained, the sisters started to train others. Within several days they trained some 600 volunteers from a nearby refugee camp.
They have reassembled the faculty, cleaned up the school and readied the school to reopen.
A local radio station announced the school was about to open again and on March 4, 2010, more than 3,000 kids of all ages gathered at the school campus to resume their studies.
But when the school doors opened that morning, the kids were too afraid to go inside the building. For many of them, the last time they had been inside a structure it collapsed. And everyone knows someone who died because they were inside a house, school, hospital or shopping center when the earthquake struck.
To help these children overcome their fears so they could get on with their education, the newly trained volunteers gave them Locational assists, which enable the person to put past memories of fear or loss behind them by orienting the individual to his or her current environment. By the time they were done, everyone on the campus was relaxed and extroverted and ready to go back inside to their classrooms.
That is why the FMA School has reopened—the first to do so in Port-au-Prince. The nun who runs the school was interviewed on a local radio show. She emphasized that the school, the first and only school in the city that has reopened since the earthquake on January 12, was only able to resume classes because of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers.
WSVN TV 15 Feb 2010 - Scientology Volunteer Ministers bringing help 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.
Scientology Volunteer Ministers in Haiti - The Week in Review
This past week the first Volunteer Minister teams from Mexico, Russia and the United Kingdom arrived and replaced some of the American volunteer units who had been there for the last three weeks.
In total more than 12,200 people were reached with help this week, including 4,674 served with food and water, and care given to about 2,300 injured people. Several examples follow.
Remote Areas
A team of 7 people (2 Doctors and 5 Scientology Volunteer Ministers) went out several times this week visiting outlying refugee camps in a very torn down neighborhood where people are living in broken houses.
Second unit is making food and supply runs. After receiving a distress call from a local pastor who had told the Volunteers that there were people starving in his community set up a makeshift primary care station and delivered food and water to his camp. The station was been set up outside due to buildings being so unstable. Primary care was given to 70 patients and 96 hot meals, 2 boxes of rice, 100 granola bars, 20 cans of tuna, (enough to feed 200 people) and 4 cases of water were provided. The locals also supplied a list of other areas that desperately needed food and these are being visited in the coming week.
Another Volunteer unit delivered medical assistance to several tent cities outside Port-au-Prince to 495 people. They handed out baby wipes, baby food, powdered milk, vitamins, soap, shampoo, toothpaste and facemasks and delivered a seminar on hygiene.
On Wednesday the Volunteers unit delivering medical supplies went with a Trauma Doctor and Trauma Registered Nurse out "into the trenches." On this project several dozen injured people were located and given proper medical assistance.
The Volunteers helped fly 4 plane loads of medical supplies (approximately 200lbs) to Jacmel in south Haiti and provided them to local doctors that that had been cut off medical supply and support lines. They also helped organize distribution logistics for future deliveries. 30 boxes of MREs (360 Meals Ready to Eat) plus one pallet of rice (enough for 540 people) were deliverd to a nearby community and several kitchens rebuilt to service about 1,000 people.
Hospital installations:
SWISS HOSPITAL TENT: A sanitation team that came in with one of the Volunteer Ministers charter flights has taken on trash clean-up around the hospital. They also organized the draining of a waste-filled pond right next to the hospital tents.
GENERAL HOSPITAL, PORT-AU-PRINCE: A team of Volunteers continued to help distributing food and water to the patients daily and organized the receipt and distribution of needed supplies.
MIAMI UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL TENT: The Volunteer Ministers worked the food distribution lines and continued to put order in the medical storage. They also got local Haitians on board to arrange food deliveries to nearby camps and brought 13 large boxes of food into different communities.
CAMPS IN PORT-AU-PRINCE: For several weeks now Scientology Volunteer Ministers have been arranging food and other supplies for hundreds of children in Port-au-Prince. The Volunteer Ministers continue to feed and care for the children, while professional Haitian orphanage administrators are working to find parents or other relatives. In the past week over a ton of food, water and medical supplies were gotten out to three children camps and several new tents were installed. A van full of school supplies including proper clothing for the kids arrived from Dominican Republic as organized by the Volunteer Minister unit there.
For several weeks Scientology Volunteer Ministers have been arranging food and other supplies for dozens of children in Port-au-Prince. The Volunteer Ministers continue to feed and care for the children, while professional Haitian orphanage administrators are working to find parents or other relatives.
Receipt of donated shelter boxes (tents).
Volunteer Ministers in Haiti provide any assistance needed and to date have helped more than 41,000 people.
Volunteer Minister vans and rented vehicles bring food and supplies to tent cities and refugee camps in southern Haiti.
A typical "tent city" in Haiti's country side where refugees gather.
The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Disaster Response Coordinator has put out a call for Volunteer Ministers to travel to Haiti, in response to the January 12, 2010, magnitude 7.0 earthquake. Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive estimates the death toll from the earthquake, which destroyed most of the Capital City of Port-au-Prince, could reach hundreds of thousands. Lack of resources and decimated infrastructure in Haiti, the least-developed country in the Western Hemisphere and one of the poorest in the world according to the US State Department, is severely hampering the search and rescue operation and care for the survivors.
For information on how to join the Volunteer Ministers team in Haiti or to sponsor a volunteer to go contact the Volunteer Ministers Disaster Response Coordinator at vm@volunteerministers.org
Scientology Volunteer Ministers Australian Outback Goodwill Tour Promotes Literacy and Drug-Free Living
A team of Scientology Volunteer Ministers, a community service organization, whose work includes disaster relief and emergency response, is traveling through Australia’s Outback to provide individual assistance based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard.
While Scientology churches reach out to help people in their own communities, Scientology Volunteer Ministers Goodwill Tours, such as the one in the Outback, travel to remote locations to bring help everywhere and anywhere.
In February 2008, the Australian Government formally apologized to the Aboriginal people, many of whom live in the Outback, for the highly discriminatory actions of previous governments. One of the worst—known as the “Stolen Generation”—was a state-sanctioned policy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through which many Aboriginal children were taken from their homes and placed in foster care.
In his 2008 apology, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd stated his government’s commitment to creating “a future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country.”
The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Outback Goodwill tour is helping to accomplish this goal, with effective solutions for the most serious challenges facing people in this region, including courses, seminars and one-on-one help to bring an end to illiteracy and substance abuse.
Kenya: Scientology Volunteer Ministers help recover trust and understanding
Volunteer Ministers from the Church of Scientology Mission of Nairobi helped the congregation of the Christian Empowerment Ministries of Ongata Rongai, Kenya, concerning a subject of great interest in any culture. Those attending the Volunteer Ministers seminar on September 15 learned how to revive a marriage that has gone stale or bad.
Ongata Rongai is in southern Kenya, 12 miles southwest of Nairobi, near the border of Tanzania. Pastor George Lukoye heard about the Scientology Volunteer Ministers and their offer to provide free seminars to anyone in need of help and asked for their assistance with problems that members of his congregation were experiencing.
Many in Pastor George’s congregation were troubled by marriage and family problems. Knowing how an unhappy marriage can affect all aspects of life, the pastor invited the Volunteer Ministers to help his parishioners with a seminar to address these issues.
The Scientology Volunteer Ministers asked those attending to write down the problems they have in their marriages. High on the list were communication difficulties, misunderstandings, unfaithfulness and dishonesty. The seminar then used techniques developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard from the Scientology Handbook and gave them practical tools to overcome these problems.
“I have learned how to communicate with my wife, children, friends and relatives,” said one of the pastors attending the seminar. “I have also learned that I have to keep on creating and building my relationship on a daily basis and to appreciate others.”
“I now have greater insight on how to handle marriage,” said one of the parishioners. “Now I can easily use good communication.”
“I have learned how to keep children happy by appreciating and acknowledging their views,” was the benefit another gained from the seminar. “I have learned how important communication is in our daily life,” said a woman who attended. “Communication plays a vital role in marriage.”
Scientology Volunteer Ministers deliver on-site workshops, seminars and courses that provide simple solutions to such life situations as study problems, relationship or communication difficulties, conflicts and stress. For more information on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers program or to arrange a free seminar, contact the Volunteer Ministers Consultant at vm@volunteerministers.org or visit their web site at www.volunteerministers.org
(Freedom Magazine News Report) Guests from 32 nations attended the grand opening of the new Church of Scientology in Malmö.
Just two weeks after presiding over the opening of the fully restored Fort Harrison retreat in Clearwater, Florida, Mr. Miscavige traveled more than 5,000 miles to formally open the new European Church of Scientology in the Swedish seacoast city of Malmö. Those in attendance hailed from 32 nations, including Britain, Belgium, France, Germany, Russia, Israel, Iraq and Uganda. They gathered to celebrate a historic day: dedication of the 72,000-square-foot landmark Church of Scientology, acquired, designed, renovated and opened in less than six months.
The Chapel is used for Sunday Services, weddings and all other Scientology ceremonies, as well as seminars and local community events.
Among those present to honor the occasion were European dignitaries including Dr. Iva Parizkova Ryggestahl, Human Rights Activist and Vice-Deputy in the Swedish Parliament; Dr. Adly Abu Hajar, Director General of the European Islamic Conference, a group of Muslim leaders of 33 nations; Dr. Gunnar Bramstång, Distinguished Professor of Law, Dean of the Lund Law faculty and author of groundbreaking human rights legislation; and Dr. Bertil Persson, renowned educator, Professor of Religion, and Permanent Representative at the UNESCO University for Peace.
The day was further distinguished by Mr. Miscavige dedicating this new Church in the name of a better tomorrow:
“Our ability to uplift generations with Study Technology, our ability to eradicate drug abuse and awaken populations to the inherent moral decency within them—all this is now possible on a previously unimaginable scale.
“So, yes, today is truly just a beginning and, forever after, let us mark this day for freedom, for Sweden, and for all eternity.”
Mr. Miscavige, joined by the other honored guests, then cut the ribbon, officially marking a new era for Scientology in Sweden.
