Scientology Volunteer Ministers Honoured for Tireless Disaster Relief on World Humanitarian Day

As the UN marks World Humanitarian Day, Volunteer Ministers continue their unwavering commitment to help, wherever people are in need.

In today’s hectic world of smartphones and social media, people can become more focused on their screens than on the world around them. But there are those whose work and commitment prove that human connection and kindness are not a thing of the past.

These are the individuals honoured on World Humanitarian Day. They provide help at home and abroad—wherever the need arises. And among them are the Scientology Volunteer Ministers, a religious social service sponsored by the Church of Scientology International. Volunteer Ministers respond to disasters great and small, and their watchword is help.

“Sometimes you just need someone to talk to,” said a woman in Eugowra, Australia, a community devastated last year by one of the worst floods in eastern Australia’s history. “Someone to just say, ‘What do you want us to do now?’ You just need a human touch. And having people like the Volunteer Ministers is almost like having the emergency services come to save you. They saw something that needed doing and did something about it.”

“You brought physical labour and, honestly, I can’t say enough about how much work has been done,” said another victim of the flood. “But it’s not just about that. It’s about the joy of meeting you—because I’ve met such diversity and such beautiful human beings that it touches your soul. You realise that, even if I never see you again, you are part of the fabric of myself, and you’ll always be there.”

Help is “the woof and warp of association,” wrote Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard. “A man is alive so long as he can help things and so long as he, himself, can be helped.” In creating the Volunteer Ministers movement in the mid-1970s, he provided tools to empower anyone to “help their fellow man on a volunteer basis by restoring truth and spiritual values to the lives of others.” He described the Volunteer Minister as one who “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.”