From: http://www.volunteerministers.org/eng/news/tsumani/050107.htm

Asian Disaster Relief
Scientology Volunteer Ministers (VMs)
Friday 7 January 2005

OVERVIEW

The Volunteer Ministers’ relief work continues in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India. Hundreds of people, including government officials and members of other relief organizations, have contacted the VMs in order to work with them in helping those affected by the disaster.

The VMs have established a reputation for effective help and routinely receive smiles and waves from the survivors who have come to know them.


Indonesia

One the VM teams returned to a hospital where they have been providing assists1 daily to disaster victims. They received a warm welcome from the hospital director and chief medical doctor.

A man in intensive care has been receiving assists1 for the last few days. This man had lost all the skin from his right arm, which had turned gangrenous due to four fractures untreated for five days while he remained undiscovered. He has also lost 28 of his relatives. Due to the combination of physical treatment delivered by the hospital and assists1 given by the VMs, the man’s condition has been steadily improving.

Yesterday while an assist was being administered the heart monitor above the man’s bed suddenly showed a dramatic improvement. The VM continued with the assist1 and in a few minutes the man seemed to slip into a restful sleep. As the VM quietly left his bed, the man opened his eyes and with a broad smile shouted, “I feel better!”



A young boy who had suffered severe injuries when he was swept up by the tsunami, including a horrendous gash in his face that left his teeth showing through his cheek, received his third assist1 from a VM yesterday, in addition to the assists given by his father who has been instructed by the VMs in how to perform them.

The improvement in the boy is very noticeable. By the end of the assist yesterday he was clear-eyed and bright. The VM asked him to sit up and to his father’s astonishment the boy sat up and smiled for the first time since the wave had struck him.

A VM also delivered an assist1 to a woman who was distraught as she was still mentally and spiritually “stuck” in the moment when the wave hit, i.e., basically in shock. A VM ran a type of assist that orients a distraught individual to the current environment. After it was finished, the woman was smiling and laughing for the first time since the disaster.

The VMs also delivered a workshop on how to do assists to 50 staff at a Red Cross headquarters.


India

The VM team in Chennai (Madras) met with a local Rotary Club who provided them with information on what is happening in severely affected areas, along the eastern coast of India, an estimated 560 villages were damaged or destroyed and 500,000 people are homeless. The Rotarians requested help to get medical supplies, volunteers trained and spiritual counseling for the traumatized.

VMs from the United Kingdom, the United States and South Africa are working in four different areas with local Rotary clubs as well as with 28 Tibetan Buddhist monks, who have been trained in assists1, to provide help to the survivors.

If you can help with donations or wish to volunteer time, call (323) 960-1949 or 1-800-435-7498 or e-mail vm@volunteerministers.org

For more information: Scientology Volunteer Ministers News


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1. Assists are techniques developed by L. Ron Hubbard to alleviate the spiritual component of physical pain, shock and emotional trauma. 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.