Humanitarian Relief

It is a real humanitarian act when private individuals donate their time to help in the wake of disaster.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers are in Java helping the victims of the recent earthquake.

They are working in hospitals and with community groups and helping to train community groups as there are hundreds of thousands who need help.

To anyone who might have been thinking about going to Java to volunteer, but may not have skills or know how they can help, the Volunteer Ministers will provide training and work for you to do. You can contact the Indonesia Scientology Disaster Relief Team Coordinator at virginias@scientology.net for information on how you can help.

For more information on Scientology and the Scientology Volunteer Ministers visit the Scientology Press Office.

According to the Oxford Concise dictionary, humanitarian means: • adjective concerned with or seeking to promote human welfare. • noun a humanitarian person.

I think one of the greatest humanitarian documents of our time is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 30 articles, it outlines the basic rights necessary to guarantee human welfare for all.

But for 58 years since the Universal Declaration was drafted humanitarian crimes and human rights violations have continued unabated with some of the worst wars and genocides of history.

You could get pretty pesimistic about this and give up.

Or you could look at why it hasn't worked.

My church conducted surveys all over the world and found that the overwhelming majority of people hadn't even heard about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and many of those who had heard about it didn't know what was covered in the document.

Education is the missing step -- helping people learn and understand what these rights are and helping them realize it is the responsibility of each of us to ensure these rights exist for everyone.

The Church of Scientology International in partnership with Youth for Human Rights International has created Public Service Announcement (PSAs) which really convey the essence of each of these articles.

Three of these PSAs are available to view online at the Church of Scientology International Human Rights News Forum site or the Youth for Human Rights Web Site.

You should watch these videos. They really smoke. I'm sure you will agree they really get the message across.

If you like them as much as I do, you can help make sure other people know about them by linking to them and contacting TV stations to ask them to air them. On any stations who agree to aire them, notify the Human Rights Director of the Church of Scientology International who will make sure they get copies of the PSA. You can e-mail her at humanrightsdir@scientology.net