KIDS ARE JUST AMAZING - AREN'T THEY

You know the easiest people in the world to show the dangers of drugs to is kids. They listen and learn, and once they understand they want to help other people to understand.

This is just what happens with the Drug-Free Marshals and the Drug-Free Ambassadors. They are just young people who want to make sure that their friends, family and community know what drugs can do and how harmful they are to the body and then they go and tell others about it.

This program sponsored by the Church of Scientology International was featured in an event recently held in the Caribbean on board the Freewinds. The evening gave incredible details of what children around the world are accomplishing on this front. Hosted by Mr. David Misavige, the event showed visuals and gave many examples of the good work the "Drug-Free" kids are doing.

San Diego Scientologists Taking a Stand Against Drugs

Last Thursday I wrote about the work of the anti-drug work of the Church of Scientology San Diego. Later I saw PR Web carried a press release about their work which quotes David Meyer, the coordinator of the “Say No to Drugs, Say Yes to Life” campaign in San Diego. “Overcoming this scourge requires real drug education — actual direction that makes it clear to people everywhere exactly what drugs do to their bodies and minds. Effective drug education at all levels of society can and will bring about drug abuse prevention.”

There is a lot of good information about the Scientology anti-drug campaign on the Scientology Effective Solutions web site

Getting Kids Involved

The Church of Scientology of San Diego is very creative in the way they get kids involved in helping other kids decide not to take drugs. That's the focus of the Scientology Anti-drug campaign, and from my experience, that's the best way to get home to young people.

Protecting our Kids from Drugs

Today is the anniversary of the UN Day Against Drugs.

Scientology churches have terrific booklets that are simple to read but pull no punches on the subject of the effects of drugs.

The Scientology anti-drug site is also an excellent resource for information. If you have a child you think may be experimenting with, using or considering taking drugs my advice is make it really safe for them to talk to you, and then send them to this site to read about what they are getting themselves into.

Your acting when you just suspect there may be something wrong can save so much heartache later. And if you treat your child with respect and don't try to make him wrong for telling you what he's done, you can also make huge strides toward restoring your relationship (as it's my experience that when kids are secretly taking drugs it wrecks a parent/child relationship and the only solution is to coax them into confiding in you what they have gotten themselves into).

Hope that helps.

International Day against Drug Abuse

I was just reading one of my favorite blogs and found out that the 26th of June is the UN International Day against Drug Abuse.

I believe it is important for all of us to work to combat drugs. That's why I support the Scientology anti-drug campaign.

Scientology churches do great work to let kids know the truth about drugs and do it in a way that is fun for the kids. The program is called the Drug Free Marshals (Drug-Free Ambassadors in Australia and New Zealand). Kids get to get to be sworn in as Marshals and sign a pledge to stay of drugs and help their friends do so too.

They bring this program to fairs and other public gatherings.

The kids have fun swearing in adults too. They've sworn in policement and mayors and other officials.

It's a great way for everyone to get to the kids with a positive message. By making a committment they have to at least think twice when other kids promote drugs to them. And that might just be enough to get them to say no.

Helping Children Learn the Truth About Drugs

I find it very disturbing to read about the effects of meth on children.

The Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care released this today:

"-- Unlike other drugs, women are more likely to use meth. They are also more likely to be single parents who live alone with their children. Additionally, meth abuse has increased substantially among pregnant women -- between 1995 and 2003, there has been an 86 percent increase in the number of pregnant women seeking treatment for meth addiction.

"-- Between 2000 and October 15, 2005, meth lab seizures by local or federal law enforcement affected approximately 15,192 children, including at least 3,800 children exposed to toxic chemicals, 96 lab-related injuries, and 8 deaths."

One of the dangers of meth is that it is not unusual for a person to become addicted just by trying the drug once.

The Church of Scientology International has a drug education web site that provides information about meth and many other drugs. Scientology churches are very active on drug information campaigs to reach children before they experiment with drugs.

Helping the Children of Calcutta

The work being done by the Mohammed Khalil Ullah in the slums of Calcutta is really inspiring. There is a story on this on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers web site.

Here's an excerpt from the story:

"For several years Mr. Ullah has been running projects in the slums, including providing schooling and health care for the children, vocational training for women so they can learn the skills they need to get jobs, and rescuing children who have been the victims of sexual trafficking, providing them a place to live, food and education.

"Learning about Mr. Hubbard's technology when he attended a seminar presented by the Scientology Volunteer Goodwill Tour at the Calcutta Book Fair in January, Mr. Ullah thought Mr. Hubbard's methods could help him accomplish his mission.

"He trained on the Disaster Response Course and several other Volunteer Ministers courses, provided by the Goodwill Tour. Inspired by what he learned he decided to implement this on a broad scale; he opened a school in the Calcutta slums, where he incorporated the techniques of study technology into the curriculum and plans to open dozens more."

It's wonderful to hear how he is putting the technology from the Scientology Handbook to use to solve such an important problem.

Youth for Human Rights

Youth for Human Rights is a really good program to educate youth on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights so they can become advocates for peace. The Universal Declaration was born out of the ashes of the 2nd World War, and was a great humanitarian effort to end war.

But most people have never even heard of the articles that comprise this Declaration.

Youth for Human Rights is bringing the Universal Declaration to live with beautifully crafter public service announcements - one to illustrate each arcticle.

It's a brilliant idea and they have executed it so well.

Some of the PSAs are online at their web site - youthforhumanrights.org.

Scientology churches and Scientologists are very active in this campaign and the Human Rights Department of the Church of Scientology International and Golden Era Productions (a branch of the Church) are working in close coordination with Youth for Human Rights to make this occur.

Freedom Magazine Writes About Protecting Children

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A recent edition, Freedom Magazine has an article on the Child Protective Services in the US.

To quote the press release on the Scientology.org web site:

Dominated by the profit-driven psychiatric industry, human rights abuses in the child welfare system are rife, including forcible, unwarranted family separations and brutal treatment of children coerced onto mind-altering drugs.

LOS ANGELES — In a heart-rending examination of two families torn apart by the Child Protective Services system, Freedom Magazine, the investigative journal of the Church of Scientology International, exposes in a just-released issue the profiteering motives of the psychiatric industry and the disastrous consequences for children and families across the United States.

As expressed by Massachusetts attorney Gregory Hession, one of numerous authorities interviewed by Freedom, “We need to raise the threshold for taking children from their families to begin with, so fewer children get into the system. Then they won’t be drugged and ruined and crushed and killed and raped and murdered and everything else that happens to them.”

“The Child Protection Racket” describes how 12-year-old Rusty Roska was dragged from his home by four employees of Utah’s Division of Child and Family Services after his mother was given a false psychiatric diagnosis, and how, in Massachusetts, Audrey Serrano’s 9-year-old daughter, Jessica, was taken away after Audrey questioned whether psychiatrists should continue administering high doses of deadly psychiatric drugs to Jessica.>>

Other interesting articles from Freedom Magazine:

Clearwater's Volunteer Ministers - Providing a Helping Hand
Mr. David Miscavige Pays Tribute to L. Ron Hubbard

This photo of a Scientology Volunteer Minister with a child in Kolkata, India typifies to me what the Scientology Volunteer Minister movement is all about. It's about helping people.

When someone asks me "What is Scientology?" my first inclination is to show them. There's enough talk these days. But with the Volunteer Ministers program there is real help.