Youth Leader Invites Scientology Volunteer Ministers to Train Kenya Scouts

Elly Rajab Omondi, 22, of Nairobi, Kenya, founder and director of Baden Powell Peer Educators, forged a partnership between the Scouts of Kenya and the Scientology Volunteer Ministers this fall. Omondi’s group, composed of Scout leaders and other young people, grapple with the most critical issues facing his country and Africa as a whole: how to combat drug abuse and HIV/AIDS and how to resolve conflicts before they escalate into insurgency and war.

Earlier this year, Omondi found the Scientology Volunteer Ministers web site and the online courses offered there. The skills he gained convinced him that the Scouts needed these same skills to help them accomplish their purpose and make a real difference in their country.

Omondi described the three online courses he took—”Answers to Drugs,” “Communication” and “How to Resolve Conflicts”—as “greatly beneficial,” saying, “My life has changed.” Omandi formed a group and has trained the members on the three courses. “We were in the darkness and now we know the light in problems such as communication, answers to drugs and conflict resolution.”

When he found out that an experienced Scientology Volunteer Minister was flying to Kenya to provide seminars, he arranged to have several training sessions for a group of Scouts and these were all held in September 2009. The Scouts’ seminars covered technology developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard on Communication, the Basics of Organization and Scientology Assists—spiritual first aid that helps the individual improve communication with his or her own environment, thus helping overcome trauma and stress and speed recovery from illnesses and injuries.

Elly has invited the Scientology Volunteer Ministers back to Kenya to hold a second round of seminars before the end of the year. He is also establishing a Scientology Volunteer Ministers resource center for which he needs a few dozen computers. At this center young men and women from the slums of Kibera in Nairobi, and Scouts who come to the city from around the country to attend National Scouts Camp, will be able to log onto the Internet and take online Volunteer Ministers training.

“Scouts and the Volunteer Ministers share a lot in common,” said Omandi. “We are assisting youth to be more able and creating sanity in this generation. Most people have lost hope. But we believe something can be done about it!”

For information on how to donate old computers or laptops to Omondi’s Volunteer Ministers resource center or to arrange seminars for your group or organization, contact the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Coordinator at vm@volunteerministers.org or visit the web site at www.volunteerministers.org.

Scientology Volunteers Help Victims of Sumatra Earthquake

Scientology Volunteer Ministers from Australia help Sumatra recover from the magnitude 7.9 earthquake Sept. 30. Their story continues.

The team of Scientology Volunteer Ministers who traveled to Sumatra to help those whose lives were shattered by the September 30 earthquake carried on their work in the city of Padang and outlying villages. After spending their first day providing assistance at a shelter and local hospital, the team headed out to the villages that suffered the greatest impact from the quake.

They woke at dawn to get to the mountain villages before traffic on the overcrowded roads made travel impossible. All along the way they were struck by the beauty of the countryside and the stark counterpoint of devastation: every house they passed was damaged if not completely destroyed—walls missing, windows shattered.

All along the route, they saw people camped out beside their ruined homes. Unwilling to abandon their possessions but afraid to go back inside, they had set up house in tents where they carried on as best they could.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers arrived at a makeshift, unofficial camp where many families had gathered. The volunteers stopped to help, first by distributing food they had filled their car with before leaving the town; next by showing the families how to deliver Scientology Assists, procedures developed by L. Ron Hubbard that provide relief by addressing the emotional and spiritual factors in stress, trauma, illness and injury.

Continuing up the mountain road they came to a refugee camp where government personnel and volunteers helped them unload the supplies they had brought.

The Volunteer Ministers walked through the camp, finding out what the refugees most needed. When they described Scientology Assists, many among the homeless not only wanted to experience them but also wanted to learn to deliver them so they could help one another. And that is exactly what they did. The change in the tone of the camp was immediate and striking, as it transformed the atmosphere from worry and sorrow to optimism and hope: so many smiles, so many people doing better.

As more people received their Assists the word spread and crowds grew. Police and military personnel came to see what was going on and they too lined up to receive Assists. The results were so dramatic the official in charge invited the Scientology Volunteer Ministers to place their banner in front of camp headquarters so everyone would know they could come there for help.

After many hours at the camp, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers headed back to Padang, promising to return. But their work was far from over for the day. They returned to the hospital where they had worked the day before, where they gave Scientology Assists to those they had helped and new patients as well.

That day, rescue workers found a child who had been buried under debris for two days. Her body was a mass of bruises and open wounds, broken bones and gangrene. Frantic, she didn’t know where she was; she thought she was still trapped in the rubble. Her screams of “Help me, help me, get me out of here” filled the ward. In her efforts to free herself she had tried to rip the IV drip out of her arm and nurses had tied her arms to the bed.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers realized the child needed a Locational Assist. Shock tends to rivet a person’s attention in past painful or distressing incidents. Locational Assists help orient a person in his or her current environment so the relief trauma victims can experience from this kind of assist is often quite dramatic.

The little girl soon realized where she was, but her pain was so intense she was still beside herself. The Volunteer Minister continued to help her for several hours, giving her various Scientology Assists, procedures which have come to be known as “spiritual first-aid.”

Gradually, the little girl began to relax. She stopped screaming and flailing and she finally drifted off to sleep—her first sleep since she was rescued and probably since the earthquake struck. Her brother, at her side since the rescue workers found her, learned how to give her Assists so he could carry on helping her.

Promising to return the following day, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers took their leave at the end of a grueling but rewarding day.

When he created the Scientology Volunteer Ministers program in 1976, L. Ron Hubbard wrote: “A Volunteer Minister does not shut his eyes to the pain, evil and injustice of existence. Rather, he is trained to handle these things and help others achieve relief from them and new personal strength as well.” The Scientology Volunteer Ministers serving in Sumatra truly live up to this standard.

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

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.

Remembering New York

9/11 had a profound effect on my Church. David Miscavige issued a challenge to all Scientologists to use this "wake up call" as a reason to step up their work to help their communities, their countries, raise the level of civilization around them, contribute in any way possible to help make this world a better place. Mr. Miscavige also honored the Scientology Volunteer Ministers of New York by awarding the church the funding for the full renovation of their 46th Street headquarters. David Miscavige also came to New York to dedicate the Church at its grand opening.

Scientology volunteers work with Benin humanitarian group to improve the quality of care for orphans in the City of Djougou

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Goodwill Tour, which travels throughout western Africa offering seminars, courses and one-on-one help for people throughout the region, has provided training to orphanage administrators in the city of Djougou, teaching effective solutions to the challenges they face in improving the quality of care in their facilities.

An estimated 340,000 Benin youth are orphans, with no anticipated decrease in the short term. In the first half of this decade the number of AIDS orphans—children who have lost either one or both parents to AIDS—in Benin more than doubled, from an estimated 23,000 in the year 2000 to some 62,000 in 2005, and the prediction is that this will only continue to escalate. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Agency for International Development have predicted that by the end of the decade, 20 million children in Africa will lose one or both parents to AIDS.

To effectively address issues related to parentless children, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers partnered with a non-profit group responsible for 28 orphanages in the City of Djougou. The Volunteer Ministers delivered “The Raising of Children” seminar for orphanage administrators, presenting procedures and practices, developed by humanitarian and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, that can be applied to improve the quality of care of children in these institutions.

The orphan care initiative is just one in Benin, an emerging nation whose Gross Domestic Product ranks 159 of 177 nations. The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Goodwill Tour offers seminars and workshops free of charge to any non-profit group or government agency on increasing efficiency, improving communication skills and organizing to increase production.

Scientology volunteers also trained nurses at a local clinic to use Scientology Assists, techniques that provide relief and speed recovery from emotional or physical trauma. They also gave a drug education seminar to a local youth group and a workshop to a women’s association on how to resolve conflicts and save marriages.

In addition to seminars in community locations, the volunteer ministers provided small-group training and one-on-one counseling at their big yellow tent, where visitors could select from 19 courses ranging from “Assists for Illnesses and Injuries” to “Tools for the Workplace.” These free courses are also available online at the Scientology Volunteer Ministers website.