SCIENTOLOGY VOLUNTEER MINISTERS OF MEXICO COMPLETE SEARCH AND RESCUE TRAINING

A team of Scientology Volunteer Ministers returned to Mexico City this week after completing a rigorous course of training in disaster search and rescue in various locales around Mexico. The training was supervised by Los Topos, the renowned Mexican search and rescue team featured in a National Geographic documentary on the Japan tsunami of 2011, and other top professionals. The purpose: to leverage experience and expertise gained to direct the activities of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Disaster Response in the worst possible disasters.

The Volunteer Ministers were inspired to participate in this month-long training program through their association with Los Topos. The alliance between the two groups began in Haiti, where they worked together to deal with the devastation after the January 2010 earthquake. Since then, Los Topos volunteers and executives have completed Volunteer Minister training at the National Church of Scientology of Mexico. And Los Topos carried out much of the training program the Volunteer Ministers have now completed.

But it was a personal experience in Colombia last year that brought home the urgency of carrying out a program like this.

“When we were in Colombia to help with the floods last year, I realized the importance of disaster prevention,” says Alejandro Del Llano, who directs the Scientology Volunteer Minister activities for Latin America. “We were evacuating buildings under the direction of CINAT—National Circle of Aide Technicians—the top disaster response team of Colombia and one of the best in Latin America. We found and evacuated an entire community of 6,000 residents, completing the operation just before a nearby mountain collapsed in a mudslide that buried the entire neighborhood. We saved thousands of lives. This experience brought home to us the urgency of gaining full competence in every possible disaster response skill.”

The Volunteer Ministers’ training began with a week-long hospital course in March 2012 in the classifying and handling of urgent medical situations. It included learning to recognize the levels of trauma and assessing priorities and the appropriate medical procedure to use for each. They trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), procedures for minor and major injuries, and the care of children, pregnant women and the elderly.

Next came training in civil protection for emergencies occurring inside buildings or other structures. This included organizing and executing evacuations, establishing safety zones and assessing the risks of a damaged building to those inside and the surrounding area.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers then completed a course in underwater search and rescue where they learned to dive in rivers and at sea under extreme conditions including frigid temperatures, strong currents, and low or no visibility.

“We had to dive into waters where you literally could not see anything,” says del Llano. “We overcame our natural fears and are proud of the competence we gained, which makes it possible to help others in ways we were never able to do before.”

With these skills learned, they trained in initial assessments of disaster sites, including immediate care of victims and damage control—how to prevent loss of lives by spotting and evacuating dangerous zones or buildings likely to collapse.

Training in search and rescue under collapsed structures came next. This included analyzing the condition of structures, learning to penetrate and advance inside and underneath buildings, and tracking and extracting victims.

In a private hospital under the supervision of the emergency medical technician in charge of civil protection, they learned CPR, rapid diagnosis of external injuries, and how to transport and remove injured persons from confined spaces such as cars and rooms.

Part way through their training, the volunteers were invited to deploy as part of the civil defense unit to serve when more than 3 million converged for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI in the city of Silao in Guanajuato, Mexico.

Del Llano knows there is more to learn, but the training completed gives the team the immediate expertise needed to contend with the situations most likely to be dangerous in disaster zones.

“We have immersed ourselves in a previously unknown world of professional disaster response,” he says. “Coupled with our knowledge of the technology contained in theScientology Handbook, we are now able to perform an important service in times of disaster.”

For more information, visit the Scientology Volunteer Ministers website.

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

News about the Scientology Volunteer Minister at Blog.VolunteerMinisters.Org!

Joplin Tornado Volunteers Share a Perspective —Help is the Bottom Line.Sometimes, it’s the simple things that make the biggest difference.

A Volunteer Minister who helped in the wake of the Joplin, Missouri tornado in May 2011 described how much people appreciated his willingness to do some hard work.

For several hours, he and some other volunteers helped a woman dig through the wreckage of her home. She was so grateful about the dishes and glasses they salvage—these were cherished possessions that had belonged to her mother.

One family was thrilled when they recovered the children’s toys. And one of her neighbors was relieved to have them help clear her driveway so she could drive to work.

After helping a woman and her grandson load a trailer with their possessions, they asked if she needed anything else. She said her wedding ring was missing—her late husband had it made for her and she really treasured it. Locating what used to be the master bedroom they began to search. Digging through the debris, first they found her diamond earrings, then more jewelry. When they finally found the wedding ring in a clump of insulation, the 80-year-old grandmother literally jumped for joy.

Two women were laboring unsuccessfully to load their great-grandfather’s table saws and 100-pound drills into a truck. When the Volunteer Ministers got the tools onto the bed of the truck, their helped was rewarded with hugs.

It was physically taxing, but it made a difference to people who really needed a hand after a disaster. The Joplin experience once again confirmed for them that the Volunteer Ministers motto—“Something can be done about it” —is not simply words, it is a way of life.

News about the Scientology Volunteer Minister at Blog.VolunteerMinisters.Org!

When 9/11 hit, a lot of my friends and I were really brought up short. It was such a shock that something like this could happen in America. I thought, at first, this was going to change America forever. It really didn't impact things as much as I thought it would. People went back to being complacent, and life went on (even though we've actually been at war ever since!).

But for Scientologists it actually made a huge impact and change.

For one thing, and probably the main thing, the leader of our religion, David Miscavige, issued a letter to all Scientologists that he called "the Wake-Up Call." In it he pointed out that 9/11 brought home that we have to do something urgently and at once to reverse the downward spiral in our country and the world. He urged every Scientologist to do more.

Since then, there has been a huge increase in the amount Scientologists have been volunteering. And one key way has been in field of disaster relief, with Scientology Volunteer Ministers helping at virtually every major disaster since.

And it is the kind of help no one else can give, really. Because of the technology L. Ron Hubbard developed to help a person overcome trauma, there are thousands, tens or thousands, maybe even millions of people today who have come through disasters without the long term debilitating effects this kind of incident usually causes in one's life.

The a couple of years ago David Miscavige announced a real coup. Training in this kind of disaster relief work is now available online on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers web site. This means, if you can access the Internet, you can learn to help people overcome trauma. That sure makes it possible to outreach far, far more. Pretty incredible.

News about the Scientology Volunteer Minister at Blog.VolunteerMinisters.Org!