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!Labels: australia, disaster response, haiti, japan, L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, volunteer ministers
The Scientology Volunteer Ministers program was created by
L. Ron Hubbard in 1976. The motto is "Something CAN be done about it."
The Scientology Volunteer Ministers program came into the forefront when a group of VMs spent months at Ground Zero after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Mr.
David Miscavige expressed the gratitude and pride of
Scientologists everywhere when he awarded the leaders of that Volunteer Ministers disaster relief action "Freedom Medals" of the International Association of Scientologists. The IAS further acknowledged The Church of Scientology of New York by funding the entire refit and renovation of the New York Org.
David Miscavige was the special guest speaker when the New York Org opened in 2004.
Labels: haiti, Scientology Volunteer Ministers
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.
Labels: church of scientology, haiti, L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology, volunteer ministers
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.
Labels: haiti, Scientology, volunteer ministers
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.
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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.
Labels: church of scientology, haiti, Scientology, Scientology Volunteer Minister, Scientology Volunteer Ministers, Scientology. video, volunteerministers
Scientology Volunteer Minister David Dempster, a Scotsman who has lived in Clearwater, Florida for the past four years, was on the first Scientology-sponsored charter flight to Haiti on January 16, departing from JFK Airport in New York. The aircraft transported more than 100 doctors, nurses and EMTs (emergency medical technicians) to Haiti, and a team of Volunteer Ministers to support them in their work. Five more flights sponsored by Scientologists have provided transport for over 600 medical and support personnel on donated planes from New York, Los Angeles and Miami. Dempster, who provided urgently needed administrative backup to doctors at two Port-au-Prince hospitals, is back in Florida now, and reflects on his experiences there.
Dempster was first deployed to General Hospital in Port-au-Prince. “On our drive to the hospital, the physical destruction we saw was staggering,” he said. “A local resident told me most buildings are made of concrete blocks to safeguard against hurricane damage, but this served them badly in the quake. The damage was exacerbated by the common practice of mixing extra sand in the concrete to save money. Because of this, the walls just crumbled in the earthquake.”
At General Hospital, Dempster’s team provided administrative backup to the doctors and nurses on duty. “Our Volunteer Ministers organized incoming medical supplies, helped calm distressed patients, distributed water to patients, carried stretchers, helped deliver babies and assisted with amputations, of which there were many,” he said.
“We had a team of four or five Volunteer Ministers assisting the doctor who ran the Intensive Care Unit during the day and two Volunteer Ministers who took on overnight duty. This made an enormous difference in the quality of patient care.”
Dempster also worked at the University of Miami tent hospital. Medical staff had arrived in Haiti, but with no administrative personnel to support them. This tied up the doctors, nurses and EMTs in administrative and logistics functions, drastically cutting into their patient care. To free up the doctors and nurses, the Volunteer Ministers took over myriad administrative support functions.
Organization of medical supplies was the first critical need. Donated supplies had been dropped off, unsorted and unlabeled, forming mountains of boxes, and the scene was consuming precious hours of doctors’ and nurses’ time trying to find a particular medication, a clamp or a syringe. The Volunteer Ministers attacked the disarray of the supply tent, sorting and stacking, organizing and labeling, and setting up a distribution line to get needed items to medical personnel rapidly. This handling of the supply tent by the Scientology Volunteer Ministers enabled the doctors and nurses to spend their time treating patients, with many lives saved as a direct result.
Another area of enormous need was the organizing and running of triage—registering incoming patients, giving them wristband IDs, and noting their visible injuries so doctors and nurses could more rapidly assess priorities. Dempster was put in charge of the Volunteer Ministers in this area, replacing a nurse who had been doing this. “She was very relieved to be able to get on with actual nursing duties,” he said, “while we Volunteer Ministers took care of administrative and logistics matters.”
Back in Florida, Dempster says the work still to be done is massive and he encourages others to volunteer.
To learn more, visit the Volunteer Ministers blog at
blog.volunteerministers.orgLabels: haiti, L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology Handbook, Scientology Volunteer Minister, Scientology Volunteer Ministers, volunteerministers
