SCIENTOLOGISTS CELEBRATE UNITED NATIONS VOLUNTEER DAY

BOSTON -- In celebration of the UN International Volunteer Day, Scientologists will open the doors of their human rights activities and social betterment headquarters at 1783 Washington St. to neighbors to see programs and activities designed to make Boston a safer and more vibrant community.

Scientologists consider it is their duty to use their practical knowledge to help others to benefit from it. In fact, the Code of a Scientologist, written by L. Ron Hubbard, states in part, "To use the best I know of Scientology to the best of my ability to help my family, friends, groups and the world."

Throughout the year, Scientologists have contributed millions of volunteer hours by participating at numerous different events covering four main fields: drugs, human rights, handling of disasters and tackling psychiatric abuses.

In June, the Church published a series of ten anti-drug booklets, translated in 20 languages, printed in five million copies, all financed by individual Scientologists from around the world. Several thousand have been distributed in the Boston area alone. They have manned information booths educating people on the harms associates with drug abuse, lectured in schools, community centers and jails. "The amount of parents calling in and thanking us for the help have inspired the Scientologists to volunteer even more," says Robert Castagna, Director of the Church’s Volunteer Ministry that directs the social betterment programs. "Today we will be focusing on tutoring since illiteracy is a known underlying factor to poverty and crime."

On the human rights front, the Church released its new Public Service Announcements (PSAs) which pictured each of the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Teachers have claimed that the PSAs had a remarkable calming effect in their schools, with bullying amongst kids diminishing markedly after the PSAs were shown to the students.

Thousands of Scientology Volunteer Ministers freely provided their help at specific disaster sites such as at the Table Mountain fire in Cape Town in 2005, the hurricane in Northern Queensland or the Bombay train bombing. They have also trained social service agencies such as Civil Defense personnel in South American and India, the police in Botswana, Brazil, India, or the First Responders in the US while in exchange, the VMs were trained in community emergency response training.

Lastly, denouncing psychiatric abuses has been a major activity amongst Scientologists. While thousands have participated in demonstrations to expose the danger of psychiatry, the apogee has been the release of a documentary called, "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death". In addition to interviewing over 150 health professionals, attorneys, educators denouncing the fraud of psychiatry, it interviews victims of psychiatric brutalities which explains why Scientologists are active in that field. Since the end of October, more than 185,000 DVDs have been distributed to raise the awareness of the population to such a threat.

"Scientologists have been contributing in their communities for the past 50 years. They consider every minute they give to help others is worth their while and so they are happy to do so and they continue year after year", added Castagna.

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