Scientology Volunteers are helping in the aftermath of the worst weather-related disaster to hit Japan in more than three decades.

Heavy rains followed by searing temperatures have taken their toll on thousands in Japan. More than 200 died in the mid-July floods and at least 44 more as a result of the current heat wave. Some 17,000 households in the hardest-hit Okayama, Hiroshima and Ehime Prefectures are still without water because of the damage to pipes and other infrastructure from the floods and mudslides.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers are helping in nine shelters in Soja City and Kurashiki, collecting, organizing and distributing supplies and providing Scientology assists—techniques developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard that help people cope with the stress and trauma of such overwhelming circumstances.

One Volunteer Minister expressed how gratifying it is to see the relief people experience from an assist. Many of those they have helped this way wanted to learn to give assists to others, so they also delivered a seminar to train them in these simple techniques.

The Church of Scientology Volunteer Minister program is a religious social service created in the mid 1970s by L. Ron Hubbard. Anyone of any culture or creed may train as a Volunteer Minister and use these tools to help their families and communities. The Church provides free online training on the Volunteer Ministers website.

In creating the Volunteer Ministers program, L. Ron Hubbard wrote, “If one does not like the crime, cruelty, injustice and violence of this society, he can do something about it. He can become a Volunteer Minister and help civilize it, bring it conscience and kindness and love and freedom from travail by instilling into it trust, decency, honesty and tolerance.”