SCIENTOLOGY VOLUNTEER MINISTERS HONORED IN THE PLACE THAT TIME FORGOT

The Savulei Paramount Council of Chiefs of the Solomon Islands endorsed the Scientology Volunteer Ministers program in March 2012 and welcomed the volunteers to the island in a traditional ceremony that dates back from the dawn of time.

Lambi is home to Paramount Chief Savulei whose authority extends over the 56 chiefs of the Savulei Council of Chiefs. So impressed was he by the results he saw in his village, he and his council officially endorsed the program and invited the Volunteer Ministers to return for a traditional welcoming ceremony.

The endorsement expresses the Savulei Council of Chiefs’ thanks to L. Ron Hubbard for developing the program:

“As Paramount Chief of Savulei and the Chairman of the Savulei Council of Chiefs I write on behalf of 56 Chiefs and the people of Savulei.

“We have come to know Mr. Hubbard through his Scientology teachings. We see him as a man of much wisdom, one who truly cares about others and we have great respect for him.

“The Savulei Council of Chiefs say thank you so much Mr. Hubbard. We look at you as our Big Chief guiding us to a better way of living.”

For more than 30,000 years, Solomon Islanders have lived much as they do today in “the place that time forgot” as the island nation is known. In villages like Lambi throughout Guadalcanal, traditional ways of living trace back thousands of years, untouched by the outside world. Villagers live in thatch-covered huts: no phones, no Internet—no electricity.

But its isolation from the rest of the modern world does not spare Lambi from the problems inherent in life, and the technology developed by L. Ron Hubbard for the Volunteer Minister program applies as much in an isolated village as it does in London, Moscow or New York.

For six weeks, beginning in November 2011, the volunteers of the Goodwill Tour lived in the village and organized workshops, training more than 100 villagers in important life skills: the underlying cause of conflicts, the barriers to study, communication, and the full array of subjects contained in the Scientology Handbook.

From the ranks of those they trained, a team of indigenous Volunteer Ministers formed up that will continue the work after the South Pacific Goodwill Tour moves on.

In the official welcoming ceremony in March 2012, the leader of the Volunteer Ministers Goodwill Tour and the team of local Volunteer Ministers paddled across the bay to enter Lambi. As they arrived on the shore, the chief’s warriors attacked to protect the village; the chief steps in, telling his warriors to stand down—that these are friends—and invited them to enter the village where they exchanged food and gifts.

In his speech to those assembled, the Paramount Chief thanked the Volunteer Ministers for providing the technology to bring the peace and spiritual freedom his people have been seeking.

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In creating the program in 1976, L. Ron Hubbard described the qualities of the Volunteer Minister: “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.”

Scientology Volunteer Ministers have trained and partnered with more than 1,100 organizations, including the Red Cross, FEMA, National Guard, Salvation Army, Mexico’s International Rescue Brigade, Boy Scouts, and hundreds of local, regional and national groups and organizations, giving freely of their skills, their care and compassion. They have provided physical and spiritual relief at more than 200 disaster sites.

Today hundreds of thousands of individuals are trained in the skills of a Volunteer Minister across 185 nations. For more information on Scientology Volunteer Ministers, visitwww.volunteerministers.org.

Japanese Volunteer Ministers Helping Farmers Harvest Their Rice

Those who survived the earthquake and tsunami in Northeast Japan last March face many challenges. One family of farmers needed help with their rice harvest.

A team of Volunteer Ministers pitched in to cut the rice and hang it on “rice walls” to dry.

Once dry, the plants will be threshed, which separates the grains of rice from their stalks.

After a day of hard work, the job was done, and the year’s rice harvest, which might otherwise have gone to waste, was salvaged.

Peter Dunn: All in the Name of Help

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!

One volunteer speaks of her experience on the Ishinomaki Volunteer Ministers Team and the effect it has had on her life.

It has been six months since I came to the disaster area. I have been working in the Ishinomaki team ever since.

There are always some foreign volunteers working with us, which can cause some troubles due to the differences in language and culture, particularly because I couldn’t speak English. Thanks to this team, however, I have learned to understand enough English to get by. I call it my “Disaster Overseas Education,” or “studying abroad in disaster areas.”

Many VMs of various backgrounds came to the disaster area—it was a team of unique and dynamic people.

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Ironically, one thing I gained through this disaster was a better relationship with my father.

I always wanted to improve my relationship with my family, and I wanted to balance family with doing much more for society and humanity.

When the disaster struck I accomplished the second goal—I completely immersed myself in the Volunteer Minister activities. But at a certain point I realized I hadn’t spoken with my parents in quite some time.

I live in Nagano Prefecture, 240 km from my parents in Kyoto, and it sometimes happens that I don’t contact them for quite a while. So when I returned temporarily to Nagano from the disaster zone, I called my parents, only to learn that my 70-year-old father had retired in April.

I have never been able to talk casually with my father, and we rarely speak much when I call. So after talking over the phone, I wrote my parents a letter.

It had always been difficult for me to express my love to them—I even had the idea that I had hated my father but I expressed my gratitude to them—especially to my father—for working to provide for us for such a long time.

I was so surprised when I received a post card from my father in reply. I have written many letters to him—this is the first time he ever replied.

The post card was tightly filled with characters apologizing to me for having acted out of selfishness.

I was so happy to read it, I cried.

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The need for help in the disaster zone continues.

Please join us in our Volunteer Ministers activities. There is a free shuttle bus from Tokyo. You will see what a positive influence you can have on people and society.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers in action at the Scientology VM Blog

VOLUNTEER MINISTERS DISASTER RELIEF

Volunteer Ministers have been involved in disaster relief efforts all over the world. 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, over 900 Volunteer Ministers attending to victims in Louisiana and Mississippi in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Rita and in the Haiti earthquake disaster, the Church of Scientology and its parishoners flew in plane loads of much-needed medical and food supplies. In addition they brought in hundreds of medical professionals and Volunteer Ministers to help Haitians cope with their losses and rebuild their lives."

VOLUNTEER MINISTERS

In answer to escalating crime and violence through the latter 1960s and early 1970s, L. Ron Hubbard founded the Volunteer Minister program. It was designed to provide practical tools for engendering understanding and compassion. Moreover, those tools were expressly conceived for use by Scientologists and non-Scientologists alike. Thus was born a broad-based movement of individuals from all walks of life dedicated to providing on-site assistance to communities around the world.

Scientology Video: Why we help

Scientology Volunteer Minister Ayal Lindeman wins Nursing Award

Here is a story from NursingOffice.com on Scientology VM Ayal Lindeman and his work in Haiti":

Ayal B. Lindeman, LPN :

“No matter what the condition or situation: “Something Can Be Done About It”

Ayal receives this special “Unsung Heroes Awards”, not because he served for 30 years, but just barely a year after graduating as an LPN from Rockland County BOCES. It was not the longevity in the profession but rather the quality of service and heroism he has shown for 20 years as an EMT then as a newly graduate nurse.

Emergency Care is his specialty and has worked as a Volunteer Minister with the Churches of Scientology Disaster Response as an EMT forward triage with the volunteer field hospital and then logistics and supplies during the 911 recovery; Hurricanes Charley, Frances Ivan and Jean (Florida ‘04, )Katrina, Rita and Wilma in Mississippi and Louisianan ‘05.

As a nurse, he has volunteered to work at the General Hospital Port au Prince in Haiti and University of Miami Medishare Hospital Port au Prince Airport last Jan, Feb, and March, 2010, following the earthquake that devastated Haiti.

He arranged the transport of three Haitian nationals to the United States for the care needed so that they might survive and has continued to assist with groups working to coordinate and help to establish a clinic in Cabaret Haiti.

He has a ready hand in times of calamities for he believes that “No matter what the condition or situation: “Something Can Be Done About It”

Scientology Volunteer Ministers in the Next Phase of Haiti Disaster Relief

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Disaster Response team carries on its work

Four months since the 7.0 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Disaster Response team carries on its work in hospitals and clinics while they train disaster workers, refugees, teachers and students and help in the reconstruction effort. Since January 12, 2010, more than 300 Scientology Volunteer Ministers from 21 countries have given aid to more than 300,000 people, including thousands of orphans, in the form of shelter, food, medical care and trauma counseling.

Within a week of the disastrous day, the Church of Scientology chartered the first of six flights that transported 369 medical professionals and rescue workers to Haiti with Volunteer Ministers to support them in their work. They also transported 263,000 pounds of food, medical and other supplies to the country, and distributed it to refugees, charities, schools, hospitals and clinics.

The medical infrastructure in ruins, Scientology Volunteer Ministers assisted in operating rooms, delivered babies, organized medical supplies and cared for and fed patients. For weeks, Scientology Volunteer Ministers worked in the General Hospital of Port-au-Prince and the University of Miami tent hospital and in makeshift hospitals and clinics around the city. One Volunteer Minister team helped a Haitian aid organization rebuild an orphanage that now cares for 111 orphans. Others teamed up with military and aid organizations to distribute food and medical supplies throughout western Haiti.

With hundreds of thousands dead and injured, Scientology volunteers have been providing one-on-one help, seminars, workshops and classes in technology developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard that help people cope with stress, loss, grief, pain and shock. Reaching out with organizational and logistics support to refugee camps in Port-au-Prince and outlying towns, Volunteer Ministers have helped set up eight camps around Haiti and another one on the Dominican Republic border to help refugees and bring food and supplies into Haiti. They have also trained more than 281 Haitian Volunteer Minister teams that have joined them in helping in neighborhoods and camps throughout the region. The next phase of Haiti relief is the long-term work to rebuild the country, and Volunteer Ministers are active in this too, working with local residents to construct shelters and reconstruct sewage and water systems. Created more than 30 years ago by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard, the Volunteer Ministers program has expanded to 203,000 Volunteer Ministers worldwide who have served at 175 major disaster sites. More than 800 Volunteer Ministers responded to the World Trade Center disaster; 500 from 11 nations served in relief efforts in Southeast Asia, India, Thailand and Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami; nearly one thousand volunteered in Louisiana and Mississippi after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. They have been featured on Good Morning America and CNN and in stories in National Geographic, The New York Times, The Economist, The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.

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 and are active members of VOAD (Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters). Their work in Haiti is an example of how they carry out the Volunteer Ministers motto: “Something can be done about it.”

For more information on the Scientology Haiti Disaster Response, visit the Volunteer Ministers blog at blog.volunteerministers.org.

Scientology Volunteer Minister Saves Life of a Woman

The story in Scientology Today on the Haitian woman who survived is really touching. It's one thing reading about it in the comfort of my home. Another entirely, I'm sure, living through something like this under the conditions that the Haiti volunteers endured.

Church of Scientology International Honors Haiti Volunteers

April 22nd, 2010 by CSI

Marking National Volunteer Week, Scientology Church praises 1,000 volunteers for more than 150,000 hours in Haiti relief effort

The Church of Scientology International, mother church of the Scientology religion, today acknowledged 1,000 volunteers who have served in Haiti since the January 12, 2010, earthquake.

The Rev. Robert Adams of the Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology International presented a special Letter of Commendation to Scientology Volunteer Ministers International director Maria Reyher, citing the life-saving actions of all the volunteers who were sponsored by the Church to travel to Haiti.

“Through the dedicated work of these volunteers, thousands of Haitian lives were saved,” said Rev. Adams in the ceremony at the Church’s international headquarters. These volunteers have logged more than 150,000 volunteer hours giving aid to more than 200,000 individuals in hospitals and clinics, IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps, schools and orphanages.

“It is only fitting that in this National Volunteer Week, we say thank you to these volunteers, Scientologists and non-Scientologists alike, who served with dedication and effectiveness in this time of extreme need in Haiti. Others are alive because they served,” Rev. Adams said.

Volunteer Ministers International director Maria Reyher accepted the Letter of Commendation from the Church on behalf of all 1,000 volunteers, those who went to Haiti and the hundreds who worked behind the scenes making it possible for the Church to charter five flights and a supply ship to bring volunteers and 131 tons of humanitarian supplies to Haiti.

“Volunteers are the backbone in any relief effort, but all the more so in Haiti where help was and still is so desperately needed,” said Reyher. “Every volunteer who served there knows that human beings are alive today because someone was willing to help, despite sometimes extreme personal hardship and discomfort.”

“This award is their award,” Reyher said, announcing that her office is presenting all 1,000 volunteers with copies of the Letter of Commendation—Scientology Volunteer Ministers and those who traveled with the Scientology team to Haiti, including volunteers from AMHE (Association of Haitian Physicians Abroad), BSVAC (Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps), Amerihelp (AHAMES), Hands for the Needy Foundation, A.I.M.E.R. Haiti and the 911 Foundation.

In establishing the Volunteer Ministers program in the 1970s, Scientology Founder 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.” “There has never been a time when this mandate has been more important,” said Rev. Adams.

Reyher confirmed that the Scientology Haiti Disaster Response Team is in Haiti “for the long haul, committed to helping the people of this country rebuild their nation and their lives.”

For more information on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Haiti Disaster Response, visit the Volunteer Ministers blog at blog.volunteerministers.org.

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.

Providing Effective Help Anywhere and Everywhere

In answer to escalating crime and violence through the latter 1960s and early 1970s, L. Ron Hubbard founded the Volunteer Minister program. It was designed to provide practical tools for engendering understanding and compassion. Moreover, those tools were expressly conceived for use by Scientologists and non-Scientologists alike. Thus was born a broad-based movement of individuals from all walks of life dedicated to providing on-site assistance to communities around the world.

Through the last 30 years, Scientology Volunteer Ministers have provided aid and emergency services at more than 128 worst-case disaster sites. Today, they are among the world’s most recognized independent relief organizations, and have trained tens of thousands of new volunteers on their methods of bringing help in the worst of times and conditions.

As L. Ron Hubbard wrote, "A Scientology Volunteer Minister is a person who helps his fellow man on a volunteer basis by helping restore purpose, truth and spiritual values to the lives of others. A Scientology Volunteer Minister does not shut his eyes to the pain, evil and injustice of existence."

Volunteer Ministers live by the motto that “Something can be done about it.”

More about the Scientology Volunteer Ministers in video and text on Scientology.org.

Scientology Volunteer Minister Joava Good: “Haiti made the Indonesia tsunami, Katrina and 9/11 look small by comparison.”

Utah—Sandy resident, Joava Good says “Haiti made the Indonesia tsunami, Katrina and 9/11 look small by comparison.” In a presentation to the Sandy City Citizen Corps Council Thursday, March 11, entitled Church of Scientology Disaster Relief, she will share eight lessons learned in Haiti that can make all the difference in any future disaster. Good, a member of the Draper City Emergency and Advisory committee for the past four years calls Haiti “a real eye-opener” and “the worst catastrophe we’ve ever worked on.”

When she heard about the Haiti earthquake on January 12, Good contacted the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Disaster Response Coordinator in Los Angeles and was soon engaged in the extraordinary challenges of getting vitally needed medical personnel, supplies and Volunteer Ministers to Haiti. “It was daunting,” said Good. “Port-au-Prince was decimated—no power, no communications systems, no landing lights on the runway, only one runway open and that one in awful shape, all the planes were parked in the dirt, and no civilian flights were landing.”

Good called on her 23 years as a travel agent and travel agency owner to pull off the task. She found a company to fly first responders to Haiti at cost—a private aviation company provided the planes and the Church of Scientology paid for the fuel and expenses of disaster response personnel going on those flights.

With hundreds of thousands of Haitians injured, and countless lives depending on immediate medical care, the highest priority for Good and the Volunteer Minister team was to fill the planes with medical professionals and smaller support teams of Scientology Volunteer Ministers. Good put out a call for doctors, nurses and EMTs and the response was immediate. Dr. Edouard Hazel of the Association of Haitian Physicians Abroad said he had 65 doctors ready to leave at once. The Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps answered with a team of volunteers ready go, and nurses, sanitation specialists and a telecommunications specialist signed on as well. “Seventy percent of the passengers on our first charter flight were medical professionals,” said Good. The remaining seats were filled by Scientology Volunteer Ministers, trained in organizational skills that enabled the doctors to provide their life-saving skills once in Haiti.

Scientology Founder, L. Ron Hubbard, who also created the Volunteer Ministers program, gave it the motto “Something can be done about it.” “We live that motto, and it is really true,” said Good. “When one of our charter planes was leaving Haiti, we ‘rescued’ a group of doctors who had been stranded at the Port-au-Prince airport for 48 hours, flying them back to the United States on our return flight. One of them, a chief of surgery, asked me why the Church of Scientology was doing this. I told him our motto, and he understood. This is what we do. We fill in the gaps. You can operate on somebody and save his life—we provide support with anything you need in the hospital and give you a ride home. We find out what’s needed and wanted and that’s what we do.”

Good is the Utah Representative for the Churches of Scientology Disaster Response and special adviser to the National Director, Rev. Sue Taylor. Good is also a member of VOAD (Volunteers Organizations Active in Disasters), she is FEMA, Red Cross, and CERT trained, and is herself a CERT trainer. She has been an active Scientology Volunteer Minister for more than 30 years.

Scientology Volunteer Says “It’s Not Over in Haiti”

Recently back from three weeks in Haiti, mother of eight and Scientology Volunteer Minister Donna Cooper, shown here at a Haiti orphanage, is already planning her return.

With only 16 days until she and her husband retire, Donna Cooper, mother of eight, grandmother and soon-to-be great grandmother from Pahrump, Nevada, is not planning how she will spend her well-earned leisure time. Instead she is boning up on how to avoid cholera and mosquito-borne tropical diseases as she prepares to return to Haiti to continue her work with the Scientology Disaster Relief Team in Port-au-Prince.

“As soon as my husband heard about the earthquake he looked at me and said ‘I know, you have to go,’” said Cooper. A Scientologist since 1997 and veteran of the Scientology Disaster Response in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, she immediately contacted the Church of Scientology of Las Vegas and the Volunteer Ministers Hotline to arrange transport to Port-au-Prince.

Cooper left from Los Angeles on a Scientology-sponsored charter flight January 21, the second of six such flights that have brought over 400 doctors, nurses and EMTs to Haiti and more than 200 Scientology Volunteer Ministers to support them in their work.

Most of the Volunteer Ministers worked in two of the Port-au-Prince hospitals or in clinics set up in tent cities in and around the city. But Cooper wanted to do what she did in New Orleans—take care of the people who are taking care of the disaster victims. So Donna cooked and washed clothes for the doctors, nurses and Volunteer Ministers.

“The doctors were great,” she said. “They slept on the ground in sleeping bags just like the rest of us, they didn’t ask for special favors. They never complained about anything.”

“We didn’t have a kitchen-just a couple of two-burner hotplates,” she said. “One day I grabbed two big bags of rice, 33 cans of soup, four cans of peas and cooked it all together. It was hard to believe, but everyone loved it. People were so easy to please. I did laundry for the doctors and nurses because they simply had no time to wash their own scrubs.”

“Between our camp and the UN area at the airport were huge stacks of donated food. We would load it into a big truck to bring it to four local orphanages. Doing the food drop one day, it really hit me that here are these kids who have nobody—homes gone, families gone—they just wanted to be hugged. We’ve all had hardships in our lives, some more, some less, but nothing most people have experienced has been like that. The Haitians are amazing people. They are so resilient, so strong.”

Cooper plans to return to Haiti mid-April, after she and her husband officially retire from farming. Their oldest son and his wife and family are taking it over, which allows Cooper to be gone for as long as needed. “My husband is the most wonderful guy on the face of the Earth and he understands I have to go back,” she said.

Cooper explains why she is returning to Haiti when she could be enjoying the ease of retirement after operating a farm and raising a large family. “A lot of volunteers have had to return home, but it isn’t over. I can go back and I so badly want to go back.”

This time, Cooper’s 17-year-old daughter will go to Haiti with her. “She wanted to come with me in January but I made her stay in school. Now that she’s seen my pictures and read the journal I kept, I can’t keep her from going.” The teenager will work alongside her mother, helping in the next phase of disaster relief.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps is an embracive program of the Church of Scientology that provides community service, 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 145 worst-case disaster sites.

For more information on the Scientology Haiti Disaster Response, visit the Volunteer Ministers blog at blog.volunteerministers.org.

Church of Scientology sends another charter with medical personnel and Volunteer Ministers to Haiti. Media reports:

Tthe Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps was recognized by the Georgia Senate for their Haiti disaster response actions! Georgia Senate Resolution 998, passed on February 8, 2010, states:

10 LC 94 2070
Senate Resolution 998
By: Senators James of the 35th, Tate of the 38th and Seay of the 34th

A RESOLUTION

Commending the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps; and for other purposes.

WHEREAS, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps is a program of the Church of Scientology that provides community service, disaster relief, and emergency response; and

WHEREAS, created over 30 years ago by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps has expanded over the years to include 203,000 volunteer ministers worldwide who have served at 126 international disaster sites, including Ground Zero after September 11th, the Southeast Asia tsunami, and Hurricane Katrina; and

WHEREAS, Volunteer Ministers have trained and partnered with over 800 different aid groups, organizations, and agencies, including the Red Cross, FEMA, the National Guard, and local police and fire departments; and

WHEREAS, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps are currently serving in Haiti and the Dominican Republic to assist in the recovery efforts after the nation was devastated on January 12, 2010, by an 7.0 magnitude earthquake; and

WHEREAS, Volunteer Ministers provide organizational support to medical teams, helping them to focus on attending to the injured, and provide skilled logistical support to aid the recovery; and

WHEREAS, since the earthquake, Volunteer Ministers has transported 30,400 pounds of medical supplies, food, and water and 286 doctors, nurses, and medics to the nation, providing assistance to over 28,000 people; and

WHEREAS, the Volunteer Ministers' selfless service to the nation of Haiti and the survivors of one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in the history of the Western World stands as a true example of compassionate humanitarianism and is worthy of recognition.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE that the members of this body commend the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps on its tradition and history of service to others and extend their utmost respect and thanks for the Volunteer Ministers' altruistic service to the people of Haiti.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of the Senate is authorized and directed to transmit an appropriate copy of this resolution to the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps.

To read the original resolution click here.

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 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.

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.