Australian Volunteer Minister Flies out for Haiti disaster relief

February 05, 2010

SYDNEY - 2 Feb: Australian Scientology Volunteer Minister Peter Dunn flew out from the Sydney Airport today to join the disaster relief effort in Haiti. He will meet up in Port-au-Prince with a team of 106 Volunteer Ministers (the Church of Scientology’s international disaster relief corps).

Peter had said when he saw the news of the disaster in Haiti he was moved beyond words. “After the initial shock of the news I felt a lot of grief, I was compelled to do something about it.”

Peter Dunn was born in Melbourne, raised in Elizabeth, South Australia until he was 16. From that point he traveled and adventured. Yet everything was with a purpose. As a Scientologist for the last 31 years, he spent 20 years counseling people of from all walks of life. He spent 11 of those years in Japan and after has lived in rural West Australia, in Newtown, Sydney and spent six months in Thailand and three years in China.

Now he is on the way to another most urgent mission, this time to Haiti.

Peter has counseled people and supervised others doing the same job for over two decades. “I have both seen misery in the streets and handled the misery right in front of me with Scientology counseling, directly helping people with their losses,” says Peter. “But little can compare with 200,000 people losing their lives in an instant of a trembling Earth.”

Peter continued, “I then thought that the Scientology Volunteer Ministers will be there and so I followed it up to see if I could lend my long experience to help.”

It’s not easy for anyone to drop everything and volunteer in the worst hit disaster zones in years—it’s no walk in the park. Yet for people like Peter, it was a matter of a quick decision and getting with the Volunteer Ministers group go through the training and logistics of arriving. “I looked it over and very quickly determined that it was the greatest good that I go and help. It's interesting that since I made the decision to go and help, everything seems to be going right! I’m getting help from many unexpected quarters!”

Scientology Volunteer Ministers had earlier rallied at their headquarters in Sydney to support the disaster relief effort in Haiti, in preparations for sending volunteers from Australia to Haiti this week to join medical professionals and about 100 disaster response trained Volunteer Ministers who are already on the ground.

Here is one Volunteer Minister’s tale of real life in Haiti from a few days ago, “I started off (the day) giving assists (a Scientology technique to get the person back in communication with their body and environment and less stuck in the trauma). Most of the people were amputees, others were severely disfigured, many had open wounds that were still bleeding. hey were so vocally appreciative that we often drew crowds of 10-15 people. Every person asked me to come back tomorrow to teach them and give them more assists. I literally sprinted from one assist to another. Family members patiently waited and then grabbed me the moment I finished an assist and took me to their loved one. One family of nine wouldn't let me leave until I had given all of them an assist. I spent half the day directly helping the doctors. I washed patients and fed those who could not feed themselves. I massaged atrophied muscles and even got people to sing to lift their spirits and make them feel better. One about 90-year-old woman who had just had her leg amputated and was severely out of it all of a sudden started tapping my leg and even sang along a bit. Everyone I met today was so eager to help and be helped. It was inspiring to work beside such dedicated doctors and nurses.”

The Church has already transported 251 MDs, nurses, EMTs and rescue workers and 100 Volunteer Ministers to Haiti last week. The third charter flight left from JFK Airport for Port-au-Prince on Saturday, with doctors and nurses from the Association of Haitian Physicians Abroad and the Elizabeth Marie Pierre Centre for Humanity, Inc., Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) from the Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps, and Scientology Volunteer Ministers. Australian Volunteer Ministers will fly to Los Angeles to join other volunteer ministers from around the world and head to Haiti on the fourth Scientology-sponsored chartered plane.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps is an embracive program of the Church of Scientology to provide community service, disaster relief and emergency response. Created more than 30 years ago by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard, the program has expanded to 203,000 Volunteer Ministers worldwide who have served at 145 worst-case disaster sites, including Victorian bushfires, Ground Zero after 9/11, the Southeast Asia tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.