Helping the country prevail over COVID-19

As soon as South Africa’s President Ramaphosa announced the National State of Disaster on March 15, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Disaster Response team moved into action. They immediately began decontaminating COVID-19 hotspots and they have not slowed down since.

Beginning with essential services such as police and fire departments, they extended their help by forming partnerships, beginning with the Department of Social Development with whom they decontaminated over 900 buildings including shelters and orphanages.

They extended their reach to clinics, hospitals, the Departments of Roads and Transport, Environmental Health, Arts and Culture and ultimately every municipality in Gauteng.

Mid-April, they took on daily disinfecting of entire fleets of taxis.

With more than 200 partnerships from Gauteng to KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Eastern Cape, the Volunteers have provided decontamination to 19,000 buildings, 558,000 vehicles, and railway and bus stations. They have contributed some 350,000 volunteer hours to fighting the pandemic. 

 

While they continue these services, a priority of the Volunteer Ministers is the empowerment of others. In that regard, they have handed out 1 million copies of educational booklets on preventing the spread of the virus in English, Zulu, Xhosa and Sotho. 

They are also offering training to anyone wishing to join their ranks. Their 19 Tools for Life courses are all available free of charge through the Scientology and Volunteer Ministers websites. 

Caroline, a volunteer who recently completed these courses, said. “The Scientology Tools for Life Courses made me a better person than before. Most of all, I can understand other people's behavior and am more able to assist them through life’s challenges.” 

The principal of a school said, “It is amazing to see how many leaders were produced through participation in this training and these leaders are changing the lives of others for the better.” 

The officer of a South African Police Service (SAPS) station described the training as an “eye-opening experience for me personally.”

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The Church of Scientology Volunteer Ministers program is a religious social service created in the mid-1970s by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard. It constitutes one of the largest and most visible international independent relief forces. 

A Volunteer Minister’s mandate is to be “a person who helps his fellow man on a volunteer basis by restoring purpose, truth and spiritual values to the lives of others.” Their creed: “A Volunteer Minister does not shut his eyes to the pain, evil and injustice of existence. Rather, he is trained to handle these things and help others achieve relief from them and new personal strength as well.”