csinet's blog

Today the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps was recognized by the Georgia Senate for their Haiti disaster response actions! Georgia Senate Resolution 998, passed on February 8, 2010, states:

"The Haitians are fabulous and resilient people and they will overcome this."

Upon arriving in Haiti two weeks ago I had no idea what to expect. It was disaster beyond belief. Being a medical professional I was assigned to General Hospital on the night shift and assumed there would be support. However the hospital personnel had been traumatized and would not show up inside the building, so my partner, an extremely competent EMT and Nurse, and I tackled the Critical Care Unit with no supplies, very unsanitary conditions, too many patients and very little time. I hate night shift since I left the military, however, the need took precedence.

For several weeks Scientology Volunteer Ministers have been arranging food and other supplies for dozens of children in Port-au-Prince. The Volunteer Ministers continue to feed and care for the children, while professional Haitian orphanage administrators are working to find parents or other relatives.

This past week the first Volunteer Minister teams from Mexico, Russia and the United Kingdom arrived and replaced some of the American volunteer units who had been there for the last three weeks.

In total more than 12,200 people were reached with help this week, including 4,674 served with food and water, and care given to about 2,300 injured people. Several examples follow.

Remote Areas

General Hospital Port-au-Prince (Photo: Scientology Volunteer Ministers/Gracia Bennish (c) 2010)

The Haiti earthquake of January 12 killed over 200,000 and left an estimated 300,000 injured and needing treatment.  Ayal, a licensed practical nurse, EMT and Scientology Volunteer Minister, arrived in Haiti on January 22.  A veteran of disaster response, he served at Ground Zero after 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, but other disasters paled beside what he saw when he first got to the Port-au-Prince General Hospital. 

Brian Fessler of Nashville's Church of Scientology with supplies collected from the Nashville community.

As reported earlier on News Channel 5 Scientology Volunteer Ministers work together with the Hispanic Community in Nashville and ‘Haiti Needs You’ to collect items such as clothing, diapers for children and even formula.

Unloading a cargo flight at the Port Au Prince airport

If your organization has collected donations of medical supplies, food, clothes and protection for the upcoming rainy season, you might wonder how to get it into Haiti and distributed to the intended recipients. The majority of the injured and now homeless Haitian population is living in and around Port-au-Prince. There are several ways to get help into the area:

3 February 2010: NBC followed and interviewed our Scientology Volunteer Ministers Nicole and Josh in Haiti.