This story on Scientology.org is about the Drug-Free Ambassadors of Australia (the sister group to the Drug-Free Marshals in the US and other countries).

It seems a group of Drug-Free Ambassadors spent Australia Day in Sydney educating kids about drugs. 

SCIENTOLOGISTS CELEBRATE AUSTRALIA DAY WITH A PLEDGE TO BE DRUG FREE

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The Drug Free Ambassadors celebrate Australia day with a commitment to help the youth of Australia live drug-free lives

Heavy rockers strike a pose showing you don't have to take drugs to rock out!

In Parramatta, Australia, a city in the Sydney metropolitan area, a group of young people called the Drug-Free Ambassadors celebrated Australia Day this year by offering a helping hand to the youth of the area, educating them on the truth about drugs and encouraging them to pledge to be drug free.

Amid the fireworks and entertainment, including a special appearance by Australian Idol Guy Sebastian, these youngsters spread the word to thousands of residents that "drug free is the way to be!"

What motivates these youth to spend the holiday helping their peers is information from the Bureau of Crimes Statistics showing that possession or use of marijuana in Parramatta increased by 100% between the years 2000 and 2004. With Ecstasy use also on the increase, the Drug Free Ambassadors are concentrating on spreading the word about these two drugs.

The Drug Free Ambassador program was established twelve years ago by the Church of Scientology of Australia. The program works with children as young as six years of age, to help them stand up to peer pressure to experiment with drugs.

"We have something very special to celebrate this year," said Drug-Free Ambassador spokesperson, Cyrus Brooks. "Just last week the Drug Free Ambassadors Australia Incorporated was given charitable status by the federal government." Brooks went on to say." Author and humanitarian, L. Ron Hubbard said, 'when children become unimportant to a society, that society has forfeited its future.' In keeping with this, we are dedicated to helping children avoid the tragedy of drug addiction."

Parents, teachers and community leaders are invited to form their own Drug Free Ambassador chapters. For information on how to do so or to get free drug-education booklets in Australia contact: info@drugfreeambassadors.com.au or phone: 02 9692 7308 or visit their web site at http://www.drugfreeambassadors.com.au.

I have watched the Scientology Volunteer Ministers throughout the year.  Fact of the matter is they have lent a hand, while others have talked about it - they were in there pitching.  So I think this article is fitting. 

Scientology Volunteer Ministers: Year in Review

John Travolta and Kelly Preston with some of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers who came to Louisiana and Mississippi to help after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

In Banda Aceh, Indonesia Scientology Volunteer Ministers provided “Spiritual First Aid” to the survivors of the tsunamis

The Church of Scientology Mission of Baton Rouge coordinated the activities of Scientology Volunteer Ministers who flew in to provide help after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

The Scientology religion is unique in that it offers a practical and very effective technology for addressing and resolving society’s problems.

Volunteer Ministers are specially trained in Scientology techniques capable of resolving the full range of personal problems, from spiritual assists to overcome emotional or physical trauma, to spiritual counseling techniques to resolve drug, learning, ethical and social difficulties. They also have the interpersonal and basic administrative know-how to enable people to communicate better and even work together more efficiently and productively.

Since the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, over 60,000 people have trained as volunteer ministers and helped more than four million people.

Helping in the Wake of the Tsunami

Our Volunteer Ministers have been in the headlines this past year with their work to aid victims of some of the worst disasters the world has ever seen. And they have proven by their actions the truth of their motto: Something CAN Be Done About It.

It began on December 26, 2004, when the gigantic 9.1 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake and the powerful tsunamis it produced devastated innumerable coastal towns throughout Southeast Asia, killing over a quarter of a million people. More than 500 volunteer ministers from almost two dozen countries took part in the relief operations in Indonesia, Thailand, India, and Sri Lanka.

In Thailand our Volunteer Ministers helped establish morgues, and assisted the international forensic specialists. They distributed badly-needed food, water and other supplies. They helped construct temporary housing.

In India and Sri Lanka they helped fishermen get over their traumatic fear of the water so they could go back to their jobs. They trained religious and military officials so they too could use these techniques to help others.

In Banda Aceh, Indonesia they gave Scientology “Spiritual First Aid” directly to 15% of the population and trained another 35,000 people to administer Scientology assists, thereby providing help to hundreds of thousands of survivors.

And our work in these countries is not done: Scientology Volunteer Ministers have stayed on and they continue to help the people of these countries rebuild their lives and their cities.

London Bombings

In London, more than 200 Volunteer Ministers took part in the relief operation following the London July 7 terrorist bombings, providing assists and other forms of comfort to victims, police, medical and other emergency personnel. Volunteer Ministers worked side-by-side with the other relief workers, nonstop, day and night, for two solid weeks.

One local Londoner who insisted on traveling in the Scientology Volunteer Minister van was Mohammed Al Fayed, chairman of Harrods of London who delivered Harrods food hampers to the emergency workers at the bomb sites, had this to say:

“My experience of being with you in your van delivering food from Harrods, going to the different bomb sites and meeting with the emergency teams, showed me how Volunteer Ministers are highly dedicated to helping others. There are no obstacles you will not overcome.”

Hurricane Relief

Our relief effort following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita was our largest to date, involving over 1,000 individual Volunteer Ministers, including scores of non-Scientologists whom we trained when they contacted us to find out how they could help.

Volunteer Ministers from the Scientology missions of Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Lafayette established local shelters to help the workers and evacuees and as more volunteer ministers poured in from other parts of the country they expanded operations eventually manning 38 shelters.

They performed every possible humanitarian act for the refugees — they ministered assists and Dianetics auditing; distributed food, water, clothing and other supplies; gave tetanus shots; manned FEMA and other government relief desks; reunited families; tutored children; repaired roofs; rescued pets; cleaned facilities. Two of our most famous volunteers, John Travolta and Kelly Preston, even flew much needed relief supplies into the area in their own private jet.

This letter of thanks from Louisiana State Senator Nick Gautreaux, shows the impact of their work:

All of us at Vermilion Parish now know that when a yellow shirt arrives here to help us we can count on them to bring control and understanding to a situation. And we now all know that no matter what happens, SOMETHING CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT!”

Although the eyes of the world have turned to other areas, Volunteer Ministers continue their work in this region, where we already have helped more than 75,000 people.

Working in the Community to Make the World a Better Place

But the work of Scientology Volunteer Ministers is certainly not limited to disaster relief. Scientology churches and missions around the world coordinate the actions of these teams of volunteers, who provide the help most needed by their own communities; from tutoring and violence prevention in the Boston inner city, to training immigrants in Torino, Italy to speak Italian as a second language; from running the thousands of kilometers of the anti-drug ultra-marathons throughout the Czech Republic and Hungary, to giving stress tests in New York or training police officers in South Africa and Brazil, Scientology Volunteer Ministers are there to help.

If you would like to train to become a Scientology Volunteer Minister or find out how you can support their mission, contact the International Volunteer Minister Coordinator at vm@volunteerministers.org.

HOW TO VOLUNTEER

To assist with donations or if you can volunteer time contact the Scientology Volunteer Minister Coordinator at: 1-800 HELP 4-YU (1-800-435-7498) or (323) 960-1949 e-mail vm@volunteerministers.org 1 Assists are techniques developed by L. Ron Hubbard. They operate on the principle that one tends to withdraw mentally or spiritually from an injured area. Only by restoring communication with this area can one bring the spiritual element into healing, thereby greatly speeding the healing process. Assists are used to alleviate stress and physical aches and pains, or to orient a confused or distraught individual to his present environment. 2 Dianetics spiritual healing technology. It addresses and handles the effects of the spirit on the body and can alleviate such things as unwanted sensations and emotions, accidents, injuries and psychosomatic illnesses (ones that are caused or aggravated by mental stress). Dianetics means “through the soul” (from Greek dia, through, and nous, soul). It is further defined as “what the soul is doing to the body.”

 

 

A group of dedicated youth in the San Diego area who have taken the Drug-Free Marshals' pledge, which stresses being informed, helping others, setting a good example and leading the way to a drug-free USA, and what they are doing to help fight drugs in their community.

[ClickPress, Thu Sep 08 2005] The Padilla sisters donned their white Drug-Free Marshals t-shirts and prepared the badges and booklets for their visit to a local youth group at the Body of Christ Community Church in Rancho Peñasquitos, San Diego. They will be swearing in new Drug-Free Marshals, kids who want to help their community be drug-free.

The sisters, Veronica, 13, and Barbara, 10, from Chula Vista, represent a group of dedicated youth in the San Diego area who have taken the seven-point pledge which stresses being informed, helping others, setting a good example and leading the way to a drug-free USA. The Drug-Free Marshals anti-drug campaign, started by the Church of Scientology International in 1993, acknowledges youth from all races, religions for living a drug-free life.

I think of the quote from Humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard, 'When children become unimportant to a society, that society has forfeited its future, said Veronica Albano, of the Church of Scientology of San Diego, the San Diego Drug-Free Marshals' Coordinator. Our future depends on their success in life. When I started this program in San Diego and saw the positive effects it created, kids were proud to be drug-free and honored they could actually do something about drugs in their area. Why wait until people are down & out to do something about it. Prevention and education is far more effective in the long run and the kids have fun helping others, Albano added.

Since the program started in San Diego, the Drug-Free Marshals have visited cities ranging from Escondido to La Mesa to San Ysidro, swearing in their peers, marching in parades, participating in crime-free events and festivals, and passing out booklets about the harmful effects of illegal drugs, such as Marijuana and Cocaine. They have also visited a local mayor, council members, and law enforcement, letting them know what they are doing to help fight drugs in the community.

To spread the word about the harmful effects of drugs, the Drug-Free Marshals campaign also conducts a massive world-wide multi-lingual drug education effort responsible for distributing more than a million booklets describing the effects of cocaine, ecstasy, and marijuana. The booklets are handed out at festivals, parades, local businesses, police stations, clubs, churches and community coalitions.


Joseph Ayers, a 5th grader from Spring Valley Elementary and a Drug-Free Marshal since 2002 says I know how bad drugs can hurt people and this is how I can help make people stop taking drugs. I do this so they know how bad drugs can be and they can give these booklets to someone they know.

For more information about the Drug-Free Marshals visit www.drugfreemarshals.org or email

Over the past several months the Youth for Human  Rights program has been very active.

In the summer there was the second annual world tour.


In August there was the Youth for Human Rights Arts Festival in Wales.

Then in October, the 2nd annual Youth for Human Rights International Youth Summit was held in Los Angeles.



These events are co-organized by the Church of Scientology International Human Rights Office, and the Scientology Human Rights Director, Leisa Goodman, often acts as master of ceremonies for the presentations.

Scientology churches are very active in their communities.

The Churches of Scientology of the United Kingdom were very instrumental in making the human rights arts festival a tremendous success, along with the Church of Scientology International European Office for Public Affairs and Human Rights.

The Center for the Study of New Religions, headquartered in Italy, has an interesting Scientology page with other news of the kinds of activities the Church of Scientology is involved with.

M. Régis Dericquebourg wrote an interesting article that's posted on the CESNUR Scientology page

M. Dericquebourg has written articles about Scientology in the past as well such as Is Scientology a Religion

My hat is off to Scientology Volunteer Ministers who went to Louisiana and Mississippi to help after Hurricains Katrina and Rita.

They did trenemdous good. 

I am a Scientology Volunteer Minister and I am proud to be able to help others.

As an American I was raised with the concept that religious tolerance is a cornerstone of a free society, and I personally value people who work for tolerance.

The Ontario Consultants on Religious Freedom are people who are high on my list.

They have two excellent pages on my religion: one is called Scientology. and the other is Scientology Beliefs Practices and Symbols.

A friend of mine from Clearwater created a blog dedicated to Mr. Miscavige.  David Miscavige 

Here's a recent posting he made, which I found pretty interesting:

"Mr. David Miscavige Dedicates Beautiful New Scientology Churches

"There have been several new churches opened over the past few years, and a lot more in the wings now. These are designed to provide a lot more space and facilities for people new to the Scientology religion, including many introductory services that help a person with any problems or difficulties and give him or her tools to improve life.

"One such was the grand opening of the Church of Scientology of Johanessburg which also marked Mr. David Miscavige's first visit to South Africa.

"Another was the grand opening of the Church of Scientology of Madrid, where Mr. Miscavige was joined by Mr. Tom Cruise.

"Mr. Miscavige was also a guest speaker at the grand opening of the Church of Scientology of Buffalo, in upstate New York. Here is some more information about churches that David Miscavige has visited for their grand openings.

"What is most exciting about this is what this enables these new churches to do for their communities.

"They now have the capability of offering their programs, such as literacy programs, anti-drug activities, human right education and character developement, to local community groups, and to train people, Scientologists and non-Scientologists alike, in basic Scientology procedures they can use to make a real difference.

Our culture can certainly use this kind of contribution and that's exactly why we're doing it!"

The best way I've found to learn about Scientology is to read a book by L. Ron Hubbard.

I recommend the Scientology Handbook because there is so much in that book that is practical and immediately usable.

Another great book is Self Analysis.

You can get any of these books at a Scientology church or mission.

The Center for the Study of New Religions is an NGO located in Italy.  Their function, as their title states, is to disseminate information on new religions.

The reason this is so important is that new things, and particularly new religions, tend to arouse suspiscion and hate, and in our modern age when the communication lines of the culture run at such speed and volume, this hate can reverberate even faster than in days past.

In the 21st century we can actually change the tendency we have had as humanity to persecute new religions, and engender tolerance and trust among all people.

CESNUR does a great deal to make this possible.

Their Scientology page contains excellent documents and articles on the Scientology religion, and coming, as it does, from an independent group it tends to get a bit more credence than sites that are partisan (like mine!)

Another site I like  a lot is the DMOZ Church of Scientology category, because it is fairly complete and gives a good cross section of what is available on the Scientology religion on the Net.