Church of Scientology of San Diego Making Human Rights a Reality

The Church of Scientology of San Diego sponsors a chapter of Youth for Human Rights International.

Here is an article about their activities:

San Diego - December 10th marked the 57th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, a ground-breaking document, recognizing the inherent dignity and equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family as the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.

"In commemoration of Human Rights Day, we decided to apply education to a major human rights abuse facing our young people -- gang violence," said Veronica Albano, spokesperson for the Church of Scientology of San Diego. Albano works closely with the San Diego chapter of Youth for Human Rights International, whose mission is to teach youth around the globe about human rights, thus helping them to become valuable advocates for tolerance and peace.

"The Department of Justice estimates there are 300,000 gang members, and some six thousand young people in California are hospitalized with violent injuries each year. Something can be done about this," said Ms. Albano. She went on to say, "It is important to show youth that united, they can be a force for good will and bring about greater tolerance and respect."

To make the point, Albano uses a 5-minute music video that deals head-on with gang violence and bullying among youths. Called UNITED, this video is a story of children from around the world banding together to defeat bullies in school and playground settings and even extending friendship to a gang leader. "It is a portrayal of what our youth face today and how they can apply Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights--that all people are born free and equal and we should act towards others in a spirit of brotherhood."

Beautiful New Site for the Church of Scientology of Tampa

I just found this new site for the Tampa Church of Scientology.



The Tampa church is a very special one because they are so involved with the community and making their city a better place.

Here is an example, from the news section of their web site:

Clearwater Volunteer Ministers in Mississippi

Downtown Clearwater business owners Paris and Linda Morfopoulos decided they wanted to help the victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Though they are actively engaged in a donation collection campaign at their One Stoppe Shoppe, they wanted to do more.

They loaded up their car with supplies and headed to Baton Rouge to help.

"We initially arrived in Baton Rouge," said Paris, "but we were sent to Mississippi on a reconnaissance mission. New Orleans was getting the bulk of the media attention, but the Mississippi coast bore the brunt of the hurricane’s force."

Meeting up with members of the Georgia National Guard, Linda and Paris quickly found themselves in a Humvee with four National Guardsmen, headed for the backwoods of rural Mississippi to look for stranded families in need of food, water and medical attention.

"And that was day one," joked Paris.

The next day, the Morfopoulis’ were asked to join a National Guard relief convoy headed out to visit devastated housing complexes.

"About fifty troops, ten medics and the two of us rode in a convoy of army trucks and buses full of food and supplies to one complex after another. The troops distributed food and water, while we accompanied the medics."

They went door to door. Finding people whom the relief efforts had not yet reached, including a group of families in an apartment building who had waited out the storm.

Paris summed up her experience when she said, "We witnessed tremendous devastation and suffering, but also great moments of humanity, kindness and love. The tremendous spirit of the volunteers, the fantastic helpfulness and eager assistance of the National Guard and the strength shown by the people of Mississippi in the aftermath of this tragedy are things we won't soon forget."

Other good sites about Scientology activities in the community are the Scientology Effective Solutions web site and a site about the Scientology Volunteer Ministers community activites.

Anti-Drug Group Offers Solution to the Growing Crisis of Drug Abuse and Crime

This article appeared in http://www.communityguide.com.au/site.cfm?/drugfree/

Homebush West, NSW -- December 4, 2005 -- A special group of volunteers called the Drug Free Ambassadors are mounting an effort to handle what Michelle Leslie, Van Nguyen, Shapelle Corby and a host of others got caught in--the trap of drug addiction and trafficking. They met with local residents and council members explaining a better way, a drug-free life.

The group is a drug education and prevention group started by the Church of Scientology to fill a gap in the education and giving youth a hope of living drug free. Spokesman Cyrus Brooks said, "It was found that with drug education, the option of being drug free is rarely even presented, unless by some outside group that is not part of the school system. So what the Drug Free Ambassadors are is a national anti-drug prevention campaign aimed at young teens and pre-teens with the purpose of helping youth make the important decision to remain drug-free and to assist their family and friends to make the same decision. And in Homebush and around Strathfield we have had great responses. Today a young girl of 14 wanted to help in her school and with council we spoke of getting the anti-drug message all over the local government area. So we're pretty excited about this."

The Campaign is mirrored off the very successful Drug Free Marshall program which has run in the United States, South Africa and under different banners around the world, with thousands of children participating in programs run in their schools, pledging them to remain drug-free and have done so. It has created a base of youth who say "no" and do resist the temptation to "experiment" with drugs.

The belief is that a school age child can be sufficiently educated on the full dangers to their body, mind and spirit, so that they can make positive decisions about the direction of their life, regardless of peer pressure. If they are not given the needed education, then they will come across drugs at some point with no education and no information with which to make an informed decision about their future health and mental well being.

The program is simple - it begins with getting kids who are drug-free, educated and then making the decision to remain drug-free. They then publicly pledge to do so and to fight all peer pressure. It has been found from experience that once they have made a decision about this, then it is quite strong and can carry them through their teenage years.

The campaign was taken to the streets and volunteers, Drug Free Ambassadors themselves, met with thousands of youth at the markets, at the beach and on the city streets around the country, talking one-on-one with kids and parents.

There are many workable programs that get addicts off drugs without giving them more drugs in the process and plenty of drug education programs to keep our kids away from drugs. A certain portion of society don't want a drug free nation as this means loss of control of the millions of dollars in drug funding - if we solve the problem, then the research dollars are no longer needed, the drug trials are no longer needed and the kick backs stop. They have strong lobby groups who work on government staff to convince them it is all hopeless.

The Drug Free Ambassadors consider there are workable answers for everyone - we have some of them and together with like-minded groups, we already have all of them. It is our view that the current decline of today's society, with the dramatic rise in crime and illiteracy can be directly traced back to the rise in both illegal and prescriptive drugs, creating a "chemical" society. Thus it must be stopped. It is simple to do, but takes persistence.

For more information or free booklets, see http://www.drugfreeambassadors.com.au or

contact: info@drugfreeambassadors.com.au or phone: 02 9692 7308.

Study Technology Success

I found this interesting entry on Give Life a Swirl blog: "Recent Result from Study Technology Program in Jamaica

"Recently the Jamaican Ministry of Education, Independent School Registrar, provided some preliminary results of the Applied Scholastics International's intervention program with Study Technology at one primary school.

"These results are from one class of 29 students.

"The results on a standardized test taken last term in the spring of
2005 showed that prior to our intervention with Study Technology, only
2 students had mastered 1 out of 3 areas of skills at Level 1.

"Following the use of Study Technology from September - December 2005, the results on the same standardized test taken at the end of the term in December show that 26 students have mastered all 3 areas of skills and 3 additional students mastered 2 of the 3 areas of skills."

Here are some more links I recommend for information about Study Technology and other Scientology effective solutions .

Scientology Volunteer Ministers in Lucknow, India

This story appeared on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers site last week:

Scientology Volunteer Ministers apprentice hospital staff in the application of Scientology assists. A premature infant who had not moved once since he was born was given an assist and showed immediate improvement.

In the Scientology Handbook There is information on the technique this nurse used to help the infant. It can be found here: http://www.scientologyhandbook.org/sh6_9.htm

For more information on the Scientology Religion >>

Anti-Drug Group Down Under

Sydney, Australia has a dedicated group of young people who say no to drugs and encourage other youth to do so too. They are the Drug-Free Ambassadors -- the sister group to the (American) Drug-Free Marshals. Here's a story on the Scientology Effective Solutions web site I thought was worth sharing:

27 January 2006

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.

The full article can be read online at http://www.scientologyreligion.org/news/pg052.html