SCIENTOLOGY VOLUNTEER MINISTERS WELCOMED BY TRIBAL LEADERS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

Paramount King Molefe of South Africa introduced Scientology Volunteer Ministers and their program to more than 100 tribal kings and chiefs on Mampuru Day, an annual celebration of freedom.

Paramount King Molefe, traditional king of the Batlokwa Nation, introduced the Scientology Volunteer Ministers program to scores of chiefs and kings and some 5,000 tribal members from across South Africa at this year’s Mampuru Day celebration in the village of Mamone, in Limpopo, the northernmost province of the country. Dubbed the country’s first freedom fighter by Nelson Mandela, King Mampuru refused to submit his people to virtual slavery in British and Boer mines and farms and was hanged by the colonial South African government in 1883.

In his speech to those gathered, Paramount King Molefe likened the legacy of King Mampuru to the opportunities now available through the Volunteer Ministers movement: a new route to freedom that can be traveled in today’s world—a route based on knowledge. He encouraged the traditional leaders to empower their people with the effective life skills provided through Volunteer Minister seminars and workshops.

King Molefe learned of the program while visiting the Church of Scientology of Johannesburg last year and arranged for himself, his staff and his people to be trained in the full array of Scientology Volunteer Minister technology including communication skills, conflict resolution, personal integrity, literacy and parenting.

Mampuru Day holds great significance to the people of this nation, as described by South Africa President Jacob Zuma at an earlier Mampuru Day celebration: “Our history of struggle is enriched by tales of heroic traditional leaders who refused to be cowed by colonial regimes. They fought with everything in their possession to protect their land and people from systematic repression spanning centuries, which stripped the indigenous people of our country of all human dignity, decency, and human rights.”

The South African Scientology Volunteer Ministers were invited to erect their yellow tent on the tribal lands of the Mampuru royalty in the village of Mamone where the annual celebration takes place. Among the honored guests were traditional African royalty and chiefs representing tribes from across southern Africa including the Ba-Pedi, Batlokwas, Xhosas, and Zulus, many of whom watched the proceedings from the Volunteer Ministers tent.

For more information on the Church of Scientology of Johannesburg visitwww.Scientology.org.za. To learn more about the Scientology Volunteer Ministers or to enroll in free online courses in this technology, visit www.VolunteerMinisters.org.

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The Scientology Volunteer Minister program was initiated by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard in 1976. There are now hundreds of thousands of people across 185 nations trained in the skills of a Volunteer Minister.

Happiness and strength endure only in the absence of hate. To hate alone is the road to disaster. To love is the road to strength. To love in spite of all is the secret of greatness. And may very well be the greatest secret in this universe.~~L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Scientology religion

Scientology Volunteer Minister “Gave Me My Life” Says Haitian Earthquake Survivor

A good-looking young man in a t-shirt and sweat shorts walked down the street about half a mile from Yale University this weekend. Two things distinguished him from the thousands of other students living in this college town—the gentle Creole lilt to his voice and a prosthetic leg. Meet Ralph Mary Gedeon, 22, a Haitian engineering student who was buried alive when his school collapsed from the Haiti earthquake January 12, 2010.

It took more than one miracle to save Ralph Gedeon’s life that day. In fact it took several miracles that came in the persons of his father, Raphael Gedeon and a Scientology Volunteer Minister from Rockland County, New York.>>

What follows is an interesting story on how this Scientology program operated in Haiti and the difference it made to at least one man's life.

^{Happiness and strength endure only in the absence of hate. To hate alone is the road to disaster. To love is the road to strength. To love in spite of all is the secret of greatness. And may very well be the greatest secret in this universe.~~L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Scientology religion}

Scientology Russia Goodwill Tour Completes 19,000-Mile, Four-Year Trans-Siberian Journey

Scientology Volunteer Ministers from Russia complete journey across 10 time zones helping thousands along the length of the Trans-Siberian Railway

A team of Scientology Volunteer Ministers from Russia have completed a 19,000-mile journey across 10 time zones—a journey that began in Moscow four years ago. Since August 2006 these volunteers have traveled the length of the Trans-Siberian Railway giving lectures, seminars and courses to some 8,000 individuals on communication skills, study technology, conflict resolution, salvaging marriages, raising happy children and 14 other subjects contained in the Scientology Handbook. In each location they trained Volunteer Ministers and established groups to continue to help their communities.

On August 1, 2006, a 20-member Scientology Volunteer Ministers team boarded the Trans-Siberian Railroad at the first station on the line—the Yaroslavsky station in Moscow—and began a trek across 5,800 miles and 10 time zones to the Pacific Ocean seaport of Vladivostok. In the summer months they set up their signature yellow tent—a 3,400-square-foot pavilion with lecture rooms, classrooms, and a display describing the Volunteer Ministers program. In winter months, when temperatures never rose above zero for months on end, they provided their services in rented halls.

Trans-Siberian Goodwill Tour leader Sergey Nikitin said, “We are here to provide effective help—that is our purpose. Our motto is ‘Something can be done about it,’ and that means not only in times of major disasters and emergencies but in everyday life.”

The Volunteer Ministers delivered lectures and seminars and provided classes and one-on-one help in Perm, Ekaterinburg, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Zheleznogorsk, Ulan-Ude, Chita, Ussuriysk, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, in hospitals, orphanages, government offices, fire station, invalid centers, veteran associations, businesses, clubs or women’s groups.

To ensure the courses and assistance would continue to be available with neighbor helping neighbor, in each city the Volunteer Ministers trained local residents as Volunteer Ministers and helped them establish groups to sustain the assistance after the tour moved on.

Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard created the Volunteer Minister program in answer to escalating crime and violence in the later 1960s and early 1970s, to provide practical tools for engendering understanding and compassion. The program has expanded to 203,000 Volunteer Ministers worldwide who have served at 185 disaster sites, including Ground Zero after 9/11, the Southeast Asia tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and Haiti.
For more information on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers, visit their website at www.volunteerministers.org.

^{Happiness and strength endure only in the absence of hate. To hate alone is the road to disaster. To love is the road to strength. To love in spite of all is the secret of greatness. And may very well be the greatest secret in this universe.~~L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Scientology religion}

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Help Philippines Recover from Crushing Typhoon Season

Scientology Volunteer Ministers bring spiritual first-aid to Filipinos devastated by this year’s typhoons that left tens of thousands homeless.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers from the Church of Scientology Mission of Manila responded with help throughout this year’s devastating typhoon season. Four deadly typhoons in a two-month period, the last hitting only last week, have caused damage to the sum of nearly 40 billion Philippine pesos (almost $900 million U.S. dollars), killed 961 and left tens of thousands stranded or living in shelters.

As soon as the first typhoon hit in late September, the staff and parishioners of the Mission of Manila donned their yellow shirts and moved out into the streets and shelters to bring spiritual first-aid in the form of Scientology Assists to those in need. Scientology Assists are techniques developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard that address the emotional and spiritual factors in stress, trauma, illness and injury.

Philippines President Gloria Arroyo declared a “state of calamity.” The need for effective, fast disaster relief was immediate and immense. To answer these needs the Scientology Volunteer Ministers not only helped on a one-on-one basis, they also trained other volunteers and those stranded in shelters in simple techniques covered in the Scientology Handbook that enable people to overcome seemingly insurmountable barriers and get on with their lives.

“Scientology Assists are very easy to learn,” said Ms. Maria Rehyer, Scientology Volunteer Ministers Disaster Response Director. “In half an hour a person can learn enough to help family and friends recover from trauma, shock or injury.” Ms. Rehyer encourages anyone wishing to join the ranks of the 203,000 Scientology Volunteer Ministers to visit http://www.volunteerministers.org/#/courses, where they can enroll on free online courses to learn these techniques.

For more information e-mail the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Disaster Response Director at vm@volunteerministers.org or visit the Scientology Volunteer Ministers web site at www.volunteerministers.org.

Scientology Tour Helps Benin Orphans

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.