Since the earliest days of the pandemic, the Freewinds has partnered with government agencies and the private sector to help ensure the safety and health of local residents and visitors.

As they have since the pandemic began, Volunteer Ministers from the Motor Vessel Freewinds, the Scientology religious retreat and humanitarian ship, continue their work in Aruba to ensure the safety of the island.

 

When Aruba closed its borders, the Freewinds was docked in port. With a complete lockdown on all international incoming tourists, the island’s lifeblood, the Freewinds launched an all-Aruba education initiative, distributing Stay Well booklets to every resident on the island.

These booklets present proven prevention protocols in simple terms and images making it easy to understand how to keep yourself and others well. The booklets are available free of charge in 21 languages through the Scientology website How to Stay Well Prevention Resource Center. 

Now new variants and increased infection rates in many Caribbean nations once again threaten the tourist industry. So although the number of active cases of COVID-19 on Aruba continues in a low range, to help ensure the numbers not only remain low but go down to zero, the Volunteer Ministers continue their Stay Well initiative, in keeping Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard’s maxim that “an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure.”

The work of the Freewinds is featured in the interactive timeline on the Scientology Website: 2021—A Look Back & A Look Ahead, that documents the volunteers’ work, including teaming up with Aruba’s Fire Brigade to sanitize every public school on the island. 

Two of these schools recently took on using the Freewinds’ Stay Well protocols themselves: the St. Aloysius School and Colegio San Augustin. The Freewinds presented the principals with kits containing decontaminant and all the materials and equipment needed for them to keep their schools safe with sanitization. 

The Freewinds volunteers have been sanitizing both schools on a regular basis since the onset of the pandemic. Both principals, witnessing the positive results, were happy to accept these kits so they can be self-sufficient and continue the work on their own. 

“Since the Volunteer Ministers started helping us we can be nothing but grateful,” said one of the principals. “The school was sanitized every two weeks and we promoted this to the parents to make them feel comfortable and give them a sense of safety for their children.”

“The Freewinds has meant so much to us,” said the other principal. “The Volunteer Ministers have really helped the school and our students. Now I am getting ready to do my own sanitization. I cannot put into words how very thankful I am. The Volunteer Ministers have taught all of us what giving back really means.”

The principals both realized that sanitization is not just about fighting COVID-19. Schools are particularly vulnerable to the spread of disease, witness the effects of annual cold and flu seasons. What they learned during the pandemic can help them keep pupils and their families safe from this point on.

In a video on the Scientology website, the Minister of Tourism and Public Health credits the work of the Freewinds with enabling Aruba to reopen its borders to tourism and thanks the Freewinds for “all you do for the country.”

The Freewinds was christened in June 1988 by Scientology ecclesiastical leader Mr. David Miscavige and began service as a Church of Scientology religious retreat. The 440-foot motor vessel provides a distraction-free environment for parishioners to study and experience the highest level of spiritual counseling available in the Scientology religion.

To learn more about the Freewinds, watch Inside the Freewinds, an episode of Inside Scientology, an original series on the Scientology Network, available on DIRECTV Channel 320 and streaming at Scientology.tv, on mobile apps and via the Roku, Amazon Fire and Apple TV platforms.