Scientology Volunteer Ministers News

Here's where you can find news of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers in action at the Scientology VM Blog

Who are the Volunteer Ministers?

Founded by L. Ron Hubbard in the early 1970s, the Volunteer Minister program was designed to provide practical Scientology tools and indiscriminate help in an often cynical and cruel world.

Through the ensuing decades, Scientology Volunteer Ministers (VMs) have provided emergency relief at more than a hundred worst-case scenarios. This includes a corps hundreds strong at Ground Zero within hours of the 9/11 tragedy, more than 500 volunteers from 11 nations in Southeast Asia in the wake of the tsunami, and over 900 Volunteer Ministers attending to victims in Louisiana and Mississippi in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Rita. In the Haiti earthquake disaster, the Church of Scientology and its parishioners delivered planeloads of much-needed medical and food supplies. In addition they brought hundreds of medical professionals and Volunteer Ministers to help Haitians cope with their losses and rebuild their lives. In consequence of these and a multitude of other disaster relief efforts, Volunteer Ministers have partnered with more than 500 national and international emergency rescue organizations, including the United States Federal Emergency Management Administration and various branches of the United Stated armed forces.

Today there are over 200,000 Scientology Volunteer Ministers, making it one of the largest independent relief organizations in the world. And in the last ten years alone they have helped some 10 million people.

Volunteer Ministers are further equipped to respond in time of personal disaster, providing assistance to repair broken marriages, recover failing students, comfort the bereaved and much, much more. Accordingly, Volunteer Minister Goodwill Tours are now welcomed across 150,000 miles between Africa, Asia, South America and the South Pacific Islands. Volunteer Ministers additionally succor those in need wherever Churches of Scientology stand.

Volunteer Minister assistance is further available through the Volunteer Ministers online. Here one can link to a Volunteer Minister for one-on-one help. One can also enroll in any of nineteen free online courses covering a range of subjects: from Scientology basics, to communication and tools for the workplace.

Anyone with a desire to help others, no matter their faith, can train to become a Volunteer Minister at a Church of Scientology.

As L. Ron Hubbard wrote, “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.

“A 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 Volunteer Ministers in action at the Scientology VM Blog

Scientology Volunteer Ministers program inspired by David Miscavige

Nine years ago, after 9/11 the ecclesiastical leader of Scientology, David Miscavige, challenged Scientologists to take the terrorist attacks as a wake-up call and do something effective about changing things on this planet. Since then, Mr. Miscavige launched the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Goodwill Tours. Here is an article from the Scientology press office web site on the VMs in the South Pacific.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Goodwill Tour Targets Literacy in Papua New Guinea

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

For more information, visit the Scientology Volunteer Ministers website.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers in action at the Scientology VM Blog

One of my Favorite Volunteer Ministers Videos

This clip from the Today Show really gets across what it's like to be a Scientology Volunteer Minister

Scientology Volunteer Ministers in action at the Scientology VM Blog

Scientology Volunteer Ministers in Haiti

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 in action at the Scientology VM Blog

Scientology volunteer returns from Haiti

Another great story about a Scientology Volunteer Minister who served in Haiti.

This shows up on the Scientology Today web site:

_{Paris Morfopoulos (far left) with other Scientology Volunteer Ministers in Haiti}

Clearwater, Florida—Paris Morfopoulos, best known to Downtown Clearwater visitors as the calm but cheerful owner of the One Stoppe Shoppe, just returned from a tour of duty as a Scientology Volunteer Ministers in Haiti.

A Volunteer Minister is defined by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard as “…a person who on a strictly volunteer basis helps out his fellow man by providing simple, basic counseling to people he meets to assist them in overcoming difficulties they may be having in life.” Volunteer Ministers are trained in basic Scientology techniques through the Scientology Handbook.

This is Paris’ second trip to the earthquake-damaged country. “I can tell you that there is a lot of enthusiasm and activity in helping to rebuild the shattered country and lives of the Haitian people,” he said. “The physical infrastructure is still in shambles and the rubble seems to be largely still where it was when I was last there in February. But many, many people are pitching in and the work is going forward.”>>

Scientology Volunteer Ministers in action at the Scientology VM Blog

Kenya Scout leaders use Scientology Volunteer Ministers methods to help in the wake of Uganda mudslides

Search and Rescue

A team of Kenya Scouts who are also Scientology Volunteer Ministers traveled to Uganda last April when massive mudslides killed 94 and displaced 30,000 from their homes. Led by Elly Rajab, 22, the Scouts joined Uganda Army rescue workers in their search for 500 people missing in the flood-affected area.

Arriving in Uganda from Nairobi, Rajab and his team learned from survivors in IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps and from the Red Cross and the Uganda Army where their help was most needed. With hundreds still missing, the first priority was search and rescue-work that had to be done by hand with shovels and picks, as use of heavy machinery could trigger further landslides on the heavily saturated ground.

The Volunteer Ministers also distributed food and supplies and provided simple but powerful Scientology techniques, called "assists," developed by L. Ron Hubbard to help people in the camps overcome the disorientation and trauma of losing their homes, families and possessions.

In Nairobi, the previous year Rajab had trained as a Scientology Volunteer Minister to gain practical skills that he and his fellow Scout leaders could use to help the people of their country. After completing free online training in communication skills, conflict resolution, organizational basics and other subjects offered at www.volunteerministers.org, in fall 2009 Rajab arranged for Kenya Scout leaders from Mombasa, Marsabit, Kisumu and Nakuru to join him in Nairobi for a series of seminars provided by a Volunteer Minister sent from United States to Kenya. Since the seminars, the Scout leaders have in turn trained hundreds more Scouts in their own regions in Scientology Volunteer Minister technology.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers in action at the Scientology VM Blog

Scientology-sponsored Ship Brings More Than 100 Tons of Supplies to Haiti for the Relief Effort

HAITI—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.

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-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.

Erika, USA - "A motto to the VM Camp was 'Do anything and everything needed to get help to the people of Haiti'."

I went to Haiti with one of the Church of Scientology’s charter flights that came from Los Angeles via Miami and arrived in Haiti on 21 January 2010. Cindy was with us who just has recently done the VM courses recently and did a terrific job out there, mainly in the Future Orphanage. Paris drove us on his car, so when we got to Miami, Olaguer and I helped him to get all the communications equipment tested and wrapped up some set ups that had to be done before we could take the equipment with us.

So when I was in Haiti I helped with some aspects of communications and doing some things for Paris, typing and relaying communication. Computers were spare in the beginning so we had people hand write their messages when there was no computer available and I was typing it up later. I also helped to make ID badges for the VMs as we were required by the US Army as they were controlling the traffic in and out the Airport were our camp was.


The day after we got there I had the idea of making a internal phone book - I had noticed that Paris had several random notes of people’s phones, local numbers and in the US, VMs and other contacts outside the camp. So I made a handwritten Phone Book on a notepad. Days later at the Camp we had some Army guys visit us on trying to find help for a food drop with their chopper and one of our guys told him "let me find our Phone Book to get you the number of this team." The Army guys said: "A Phone Book! That's why we like you guys, we are so well organized". Well, they got their contact and their food drop lined up and happily left the camp (and I was proud).

The first three days outside of camp I was working in the General Hospital. It was very good that we got out there then because there were no visible groups of foreign doctors or other Disaster Relief Units there yet. Help was really desperately needed. The first day was a bit of a shock to me, it was so extremely hot, and seeing so many maimed people was not easy. I worked mainly in the park of the hospital, outside the buildings were there was a lot of people left lying around while the doctors were working mainly inside de buildings. I went around and saw what these patients needed, cleaning, sanitizing and covering wounds. I have no nurse training but I could do what anyone with some basic First Aid training can do to help injured people.

There were a lot of people in the park, I would say 60 people in beds, 20 more on the ground and their families or some family members with them. Someone I remember in particular was a woman who had an open wound on her breast she was in strong pain. I was giving her a touch assist so until the pain blew and she looked much more relaxed. Then I went onto help her 8 year old daughter to clean, disinfect and cover her wounds and taught her how to do it herself - I had just run in Haitian translator by then. She understood the importance of it.

I tried to keep log for the first 3 or 4 days but afterward all the days started to mush together, We just kept working, kept trying to help as many people as we could. Sometimes I lost track if it was day or night. And the days just after the catastrophe are vital and this is when you have the most confusion.

Then I moved on to the Miami Tent Hospital at the Port-au-Prince airport as they were requesting some more people to help over there. The first day they needed someone to route the visitors and keep security and control in who is coming in the three tents (housing hundreds of patients). Later I moved on to the storage tent and I was helping organize the medical supplies. Once the shelves were built and on their way to us we organized a fork lift to move around the big boxes of supplies and other goods to make space. A group of VMs then could put all the supplies in the shelves and finish organizing up the place in very short time. During the next days at the Miami University Hospital I was receiving new supplies and helped re-stocking the pharmacies at the Wound Care, OR and Pediatrics tent.

One thing that became kind of a motto to the VM Camp was "Do anything and everything needed to get help to the people of Haiti". I remember Elena from the Italian team mention this earlier but I really felt so in my heart and I could see for the actions I saw each VM take, everybody carried that out.

Erika

Michigan Scientology Volunteer Minister opts to help in Haiti instead of vacation

”I was on vacation, and thought to myself, ‘Doing this is so worthless when so many need help,’” said 18-year-old Echo Brabenec, of Suttons Bay. “I felt like I could do better by doing something to help the people in Haiti.”

The mostly home-schooled teen (she studied at Suttons Bay High School for a year, and graduated a year early from Traverse City West), went to Port-au-Prince, Haiti as one of the volunteer ministers of the Church of Scientology on Feb. 14, and will be there until mid-April.

She and her fiancé, Shane Fasel, a TC West graduate from the Interlochen area, and the church group flew out of Miami on a church-chartered plane packed with donated medical supplies. They are working in tandem with other relief organizations, churches, and military units, operating under the overriding viewpoint of their church that “something can be done about it.”

Echo explained why she felt so compelled to help the people of Haiti, whose country was devastated by a massive earthquake on Jan. 12.

“I’ve been raised with the idea that you take responsibility for the things you see in your life,” she said. “And what I saw was that so many needed help.”

Her parents, Randy Gilmore and Elisa Brabenec of Suttons Bay, said, “Echo has wanted to do this type of work since she was a young child; she was one of the youngest members of the church to complete her volunteer minister training. With each opportunity presented to her, we said, ‘But Echo, you’re only 12′… we always thought she was too young to handle what she was trying to do at the time.”

NBC’s “Today” show reporter Kerry Sanders was in Port-au-Prince, and gave a report on the work of the volunteer ministers.

Sanders stated that groups from the Church of Scientology have helped at the sites of many of the world’s worst disasters, saying, “They were at 9/11, and at Katrina, and now they are here, doing the work that no one else wants to do.”

Welcome reception

Sanders’ report included interviews with members of the group, and with a doctor working in a crowded, makeshift hospital, who said, “I am totally impressed with these young adults from the Scientology Church. They have just been so effective for us.”

A young volunteer named Nicole, who wore the bright yellow T-shirt that identifies the group, said that the Scientologists are not in Haiti to spread their beliefs. “We don’t even mention religion,” she said, adding that the menial work they were doing was unlikely to make people want to join the church.

Sanders reported on the value of a particular type of gentle touch therapy called an “assist,” saying, “In 20 minutes, we watched as Nicole took a pained little girl from frowns to giggles.”

Echo spent a week in a Christian school giving assists for physical pain and emotional stress, and has helped deliver seminars to aid people in refocusing their attention from the trauma of their situation to productive plans and activities. Her group has recently been cleaning a hospital to prepare it for reopening.

“Their work with the Haitians focuses on bringing each individual with whom they work to an improved state of mind, one in which they will be able to look at their situation with hope and certainty of their own individual ability to effect the changes that are needed,” said Echo’s mother, Elisa.

On a typical day in Haiti, Echo and the team get up at 7:30 in the morning and gather for a meeting at 8. The 50 to 60 people, including medical teams, decide where they are most needed that day, and then go out to help and deliver the simple and effective assists; the technique is also easy to teach, and those who learn it can then help others. The team has gone to orphanages and refugee camps, and has also given assists to members of the military and medical teams.

“We’ve been received with open arms here,” she said. “All the people are warm and friendly, and often give us big hugs and kisses. The Haitians are the craziest drivers I’ve has ever seen! But it feels really good when little kids give a huge ‘thumbs up’ when we drive by. The kids we’ve met are smart, and very fast learners.”

Echo described her experience saying, “This is one of the greatest experiences of my life; it’s wonderful to be able to deliver an assist and see the smiles come back on people’s faces!”

In spite of the devastation that surrounds her in Haiti, Echo said, “The people of Haiti really need help to get their homes rebuilt, but people are doing what they can to get back up on their feet and clean up … I feel a sense of hopefulness.”

Echo’s parents reflect the belief of many of those who have gone to Haiti to help in the aftermath of the tragedy: “We believe in people’s inherent ability to create beauty, do good work, and solve the problems that face them. If you relieve the immediate stress and focus them on that ability, they will respond to the challenges of life with renewed vigor.”

_{This article by contributing writer Kristine Morris appeared Monday, March 8, in the Grand Traverse Insider and is reprinted with its permission.}

Scientology Church in Milan and Human Rights Association of Italy Help Build Schools in Ghana

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CBS4 Reports: Group Of Doctors, Ministers Takeoff To Help Haiti | Scientology Volunteer Ministers Blog: Haiti Earthquake Disaster Aid & Relief News, International Volunteering Organization

CBS4 Reports: Group Of Doctors, Ministers Takeoff To Help Haiti | Scientology Volunteer Ministers Blog: Haiti Earthquake Disaster Aid & Relief News, International Volunteering Organization



A culture is only as great as its dreams, and its dreams are dreamed by artists. — Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Disaster Relief in Haiti

Overview

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps is a program of the Church of Scientology providing disaster relief and emergency response. Created more than 30 years ago by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard, the program has expanded to 203,000 Volunteer Ministers worldwide who have served at 175 worst-case disaster sites, including Ground Zero after 9/11, the Southeast Asia tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the Haiti earthquake disaster.

Volunteer Ministers have trained and partnered with more than 800 different groups, organizations and agencies including the Red Cross, FEMA, the National Guard, and police and fire departments aand are active members of VOAD (Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters. The Volunteer Ministers Corps motto is “Something can be done about it.”

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 2004 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 are organized in Churches of Scientology Disaster Response (CSDR) teams. These teams, wearing their signature yellow shirts, arrive on a scene shortly after the first responders. They meet with local emergency managers and law enforcement officials to coordinate their actions and provide any immediate assistance needed, such as organizing a confused area, supplying food and water, manning PODs (points of distribution) and offering volunteers to assist with needed projects. As soon as possible they begin providing ‘Assists’ (an action taken to help a person confront physical difficulties and alleviate a present time discomfort, pain or trauma) to survivors, first responders and care-givers as needed.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers have extensive ministerial training in dealing with people experiencing stress, loss, grief, pain and/or shock as well as organizational skills.

Haiti Disaster Response

In the first week following the Haiti earthquake the Church of Scientology Volunteer Minister corps has mobilized and safely transported more than 350 rescue and medical professionals and Volunteer Ministers to Haiti. Donations for about 40 tons of food and medicine were raised and the supplies were brought into Haiti for distribution, in coordination with the United Nations. Within ten days over 100 Volunteer Ministers were working in Haiti.

The Volunteer Ministers units in Haiti have set up tents close to the airport. Another camp is being set up by Scientology Volunteer Ministers in the Dominican Republic, close to the Haitian border, to help refugees who are crossing the border and to arrange logistics for food and supplies to go into Haiti. Throughout the day, Scientology Volunteer Ministers are helping injured and distressed Haitians to cope with their injuries and losses and giving them hope. Scientology Volunteer Ministers are also assisting medical professionals, in the operating rooms; delivering babies; organizing medical supplies or the transport, care or feeding of patients.

By the end of the second week after the disaster hit Haiti, they had established themselves as a stable source of help at the General Hospital of Port-au-Prince and the University of Miami tent hospital and in the many make-shift hospitals around the city. One Volunteer Minister team helped a Haitian aid organization to re-built an orphanage that could take in and feed about 80 orphans to date. Others have teamed up with military or aid organization units and are organizing the distribution of food and medical supplies across the western part of Haiti. In the past days the Volunteer Ministers expanded their organizational and logistics support to refugee camps outside Port au Prince.

Summary

Two weeks after the disaster hit Haiti over 120 Scientology Volunteer Ministers are active in Haiti and the Dominican Republic and:

• helped over 37,000 people, including hundreds of orphans
• arranged and delivered over 38,600 tons of food and medical supplies
• served more than 3,150 meals

(Updated: 31 Januar 2010)

Help Haiti

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 of Australia Outback Goodwill Tour

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Outback Goodwill Tour—Traveling through the Australia outback helping one person at a time

Scientology Volunteer Ministers, traveling through the Australia Northern Territory, are bringing help on a one-on-one basis, where help is needed.

Australian Aboriginal culture may well be the oldest continuous living culture on Earth, beginning an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 years ago. But over the past two centuries the culture and rights of the indigenous people have taken a tremendous toll.

Last year, the Australian government formally apologized for the past wrongs caused by successive governments to the indigenous Aboriginal population, acknowledging its laws and policies had “inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss”. And the government’s formal support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples last April was acknowledged by the Australian Human Rights Commission, as a “giant step,” toward “embracing the fundamental guiding principles of mutual respect and partnership.”

To make a real difference at grassroots level, the issues that impact the lives of indigenous Australians need to be addressed. A team of Scientology Volunteer Ministers, traveling through the outback, are bringing help to the Aboriginal community, one person at a time.

They help people where they work and live, visiting them in their homes, on the streets and in the camps. They provide seminars in skills such as conflict resolution, communication and the basics of organization. They tackle literacy problems by training parents, teachers and civic leaders on the technology of study developed by Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard.

Addiction and substance abuse, particularly alcohol and inhalants, are serious problems in the community and the volunteers use technology from the Scientology Handbook to help people withdraw from drugs and alcohol. They accompany this with Scientology assists to overcome the pain and discomfort associated with withdrawal. Scientology assists are procedures that greatly increase the speed of healing by addressing the emotional and spiritual factors in illness and injuries.

“I have experienced a reinvigoration in my faith in humanity and my will to live,” wrote one man who was helped by the Tour. “I can now expand and achieve my intention in life,” he went on to say. “Being associated with you and the materials has given me a glow in life—it’s come back. I feel good. … I’m happy and grateful. There is nobody else in Alice Springs like you people.”

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Outback Goodwill Tour has taken to heart the spirit in which Mr. Hubbard created the Scientology Volunteer Ministers program: “If one is going to find fault with something, it implies that he wishes to do something about it and would if he could. 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.”

Scientology Volunteers Help Victims of Sumatra Earthquake

Australian Scientology Volunteer Ministers bring spiritual first-aide to survivors of devastation in southern Sumatra.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers arrived in Indonesia the day after the September 30 earthquake left more than 1,000 dead and half a million homeless.

The Australian Scientology Volunteer Ministers who traveled to Padang, 28 miles from the epicenter of the magnitude 7.9 earthquake, are no strangers to disaster. They are veterans of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2007 Yogyakarta tornado and the 2007 Java quake. But even they were challenged by the enormity of the devastation they encountered.

Here is an account of their first day:

In Padang, 28 miles from the epicenter of the magnitude 7.9 earthquake, they started in Chinatown, left in shambles by the disaster. There, in a medical tent, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers showed the doctors and nurses how to provide Scientology Assists and gave them copies of an instruction booklet. Assists are procedures developed by L. Ron Hubbard that provide relief by addressing the emotional and spiritual factors in stress, trauma, illness and injuries.

A nurse said “So, you can give relief using no drugs and no medicine? This is really needed. We all need to know this!”

On to a Chinese temple serving as a shelter for those whose homes were destroyed. The volunteers met the head of the medical clinic who had relocated his operation to the temple’s basketball court when the earthquake destroyed his offices. He could not keep up with the flood of people who had come to the temple for help so the Volunteer Ministers went to work. They set up tables to provide Scientology Assists and chairs where others could sit while they waited their turns.

As lines of people received Assists and word of the physical and emotional relief spread, and the lines grew longer, the volunteers decided to train those waiting how to give Assists to each other. Their mission accomplished at that location, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers took their leave and moved on to a hospital where they could give assistance.

As they drove on through the city, they saw the eerie capriciousness of the earthquake. A three-story building leaned precariously over its neighbor’s home. Another building looked untouched until they saw that one wall was missing entirely. One house stood with every room exposed to view, a snapshot of a family no longer there.

The first hospital they found was completely destroyed. The next, a private hospital, was still operating despite damage. There, on the steps, a woman holding a baby was crying uncontrollably—her brother was inside dying because she didn’t have the 125,000 rupiah to buy what he needed from the blood bank. The Volunteer Ministers paid for the blood—$15 to save a life.

The volunteers moved into the wards and started giving Scientology Assists to injured patients while others explained the procedure to the nurses and taught them how to give Assists.

One man whose leg was completely numb received an Assist. When it was over, not only was the feeling in his leg restored, but his huge smile attested to the fact that the pain that had wracked the rest of his body was gone as well.

Concrete had crushed another man’s leg, breaking it in dozens of places from knee down to foot. The doctors had inserted metal rods into his leg. Blood was seeping out into the freshly bandaged wounds and he was writhing in pain. By the time his Assist was done he was calm and relaxed, and he smiled when he said, “I feel good… I feel good!”

Another man, whose entire body had been injured, was traumatized to the point of complete unresponsiveness—it appeared he could not hear or speak at all. The Scientology Volunteer Minister explained what she was doing with impromptu sign language and began the Assist. At first he didn’t appear to notice anything, but gradually he began to respond and in the end he was smiling.

As Day One in Padang drew to a close, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers met a team from the Indonesian Red Cross who had booked an extra hotel room where a bucket served as shower at the end of a long, hot and dirty day they will never forget.

Scouts and Scientology Volunteer Ministers Partner to Help the People of the Amazon

Scientology Volunteer Ministers and Cuauhtémoc scout leaders team up to bring help to the indigenous people of the Amazon.

As the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Amazon Goodwill Tour pulls up stakes and prepares to head farther downstream, the volunteers look back on the past five months. This is the first in a series of articles that tells their story.

In April 2009, Mexico City, Scientology volunteers were preparing for a Goodwill Tour to help indigenous people of the Amazon improve their lives through simple technology developed by L. Ron Hubbard.

The leader of Troop 333 of the Cuauhtémoc Scouts heard about the Amazon Tour. The skill and compassion of the Volunteer Ministers confirmed his impression of Mr. Hubbard, creator of the program, whom he first encountered through the pages of Dianetics in 1975.

The troop leader devised a plan to combine forces—Scouting and Volunteer Ministers—as he saw in the Volunteer Ministers program a technology to better enable the scouts to fulfill their oath: “to help other people at all times.”

His idea was to invite a team of his most trusted scouts to join the Goodwill Tour, learn the technology and gain practical experience in using it under the guidance of experienced Volunteer Ministers.

As the Scouts loved the idea, the Scout leader proposed it to the Scientology Goodwill Tour and selected three candidates from among his best group leaders to form this unique partnership.

Nasxihly, 22, a nurse and Scouting group leader of children ages 6 to 10, brought enthusiasm and compassion to the Volunteer Ministers team, and her nursing skill was invaluable in areas where illness is rampant and hygiene often lacking.

Ivan, 23, a marketing student and Scouting group leader of youth ages 11 to 15, contributed his professional talents to reach out to people through TV and radio interviews.

Manuel, 20, a university student and Scouting group leader of teens and young adults ages 18 to 22, took care of the many details in moving the tour from place to place and documented the Tour’s work through photos and video.

The three new Goodwill Tour members learned the skills that make the Scientology Volunteer Ministers so effective, through courses based on the Scientology Handbook.

In a moving ceremony on April 30, 2009, the Cuauhtémoc Scout Leader presented the entire team with the flags of Mexico and Scouting. The Scouts and the Scientology Volunteer Ministers joined hands as the leader called on them to “work very hard and achieve the purpose of bettering the lives of the people of the Amazon.” Expecting the best from them all, he said, “This is a great responsibility and we know that you will do excellent work.”

With that, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Amazon Goodwill Tour left for Iquitos, Peru, the largest city in the Peruvian rainforest, and the gateway to the Amazon.

As their story continues in part two of this series, the skills and teamwork of the team are put to the test, as they arrive in Iquitos just as the Amazon River reaches the highest level ever recorded, prompting Peru’s President Garcia to declare a 60-day state of emergency.

For more information on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers visit www.volunteerministers.org.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Help Samoa Recover from Tsunami

A team of Scientology Volunteer Ministers is helping Samoa recover from the tsunami that hit the island early Tuesday, September 29. The tidal waves carried entire villages out to sea and killed at least 140.

An 8.0 earthquake 120 miles off the coast jolted people awake in Samoa at 6:48 that morning. Ten minutes later the first of four 15- to 20-foot-high waves pounded the shore and surged inland, destroying everything in their path.

Alerted to the disaster, Scientologists from Sydney, Australia, flew to the devastated island. There, they joined a team of Samoans who trained to be Volunteer Ministers in 2008 when the Scientology Volunteer Ministers South Pacific Goodwill Tour was in that country. They are working together to help local officials provide basic services for several thousand survivors living in emergency shelters since the disaster occurred.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers have set up their bright yellow tent as a headquarters for their relief activities. There, at shelters and in villages throughout the island, they provide Scientology Assists—simple procedures developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard that help people recover from the emotional and spiritual effects of trauma, illness and injury.

“Our Scientology Assists are the ’spiritual first-aid’ people need in a disaster,” said Mathew Andrews, leader of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers South Pacific Goodwill Tour who is coordinating the Volunteer Ministers disaster relief in Samoa. “People who are grieving, in pain or fixated on the tragedy become extroverted and bright and start planning again for the future. We helped a man who was in pain, struggling to walk. Today we saw him in town. He was smiling and walking easily and came up to me to shake my hand.”

For more information or to join the relief effort in Samoa contact the Volunteer Ministers Consultant at vm@volunteerministers.org. To learn more about the Scientology Volunteer Ministers program visit their web site at www.volunteerministers.org or the Scientology site.

California Scientology Churches Back Fire Crews

Scientologists from throughout Southern California rally to support the firefighters battling blazes that threaten thousands of suburban homes

Acknowledging the many Scientologists volunteering on the LA fire lines, Ms. Eden Stein, President of the Church of Scientology of Pasadena said, “The firefighters are the true heroes. They are out there under the most trying conditions, literally putting their lives on the line. We have the finest fire crews in the world protecting us and they deserve our full support.”

Scientology volunteers are distributing food and water and providing security patrols in addition to giving Scientology assists, simple procedures developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard that help relieve the emotional and spiritual aspect of trauma from injury, stress or shock.

“We encourage anyone who wants to help to contact the Church,” said Ms. Stein. “Whether you are trained or not, if you want to assist the fire crews we welcome your contribution.”

The Los Angeles fire killed two firefighters, consumed nearly 20 per cent of the Angeles National Forest, damaged an estimated $13.6 million in property, caused thousands of evacuations and destroyed 50 structures in its first week, prompting Governor Schwarzenegger to declare a state of emergency for Los Angeles County.

The Church of Scientology of Pasadena is acting headquarters of the activities of the Scientology Disaster Response Team for the greater Los Angeles area during this crisis, coordinating the efforts of Scientologists with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and other civic and volunteer organizations to provide whatever help is needed.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers program was created in 1976. Volunteer Ministers have given aid at 126 major disaster sites providing disaster relief services at 42 locations in the past year alone.

To contact the Volunteer Ministers Coordinator at the Church of Scientology of Pasadena, call (626) 792-7533. For more information on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers visit their web site at http://www.volunteerministers.org

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers program was created by L. Ron Hubbard to bring help everywhere. The huge expansion of the program in this past decade was inspired by Scientology ecclesiastical leader David Miscavige in his famous appeal to Scientologists to use 9/11 as a wake-up call and extend their help to their communities and society at a far greater level than ever before.