Sunday, July 29, 2007

What Made These Kids Smile Again?

These kids are so gorgeous. They're primary school kids in Cuddalore, India. As bright as they look, I doubt there is a single one of them that wasn't affected by the tsunami 2 1/2 years ago. The lady in the white blouse and yellow sash is a Scientology Volunteer Minister. In fact, she's part of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Mobile Center of Tamil Nadu.

The story of how this center was created is pretty moving. It started with the tsunami. Tamil Nadu is the only French-speaking state of India. Didn't know there was a French area there? Neither did I until the tsunami news started coming out.

Turns out that this part of India was actually a French colony. When India gained independence from Great Britain this region opted to become part of India, but they have continued to be a resort visited by the French and French-speaking people ever since, and tourism and the resort industry was of major importance to the livelihood of the area.

Well, the coastal areas were transformed, if that's the right term (more like obliterated) by the immense tsunami wave that wiped out areas of Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia as well, the day after Christmas 2004.

Some Scientologists from France decided to join the relief effort. Scientology Volunteer Ministers from all over the world were organizing expeditions to South Asia, and the French Scientologists chose Tamil Nadu as the area they would go to. Among these first teams of Scientologists to arrive were Marc and Prisca Arrighi. Seeing the news of how devastated the region was they knew they'd be there for a while, so they packed up their kids and decided to go for the long haul. After being in the region for a while they realized they really wanted to stay, and so they set up this Mobile Volunteer Ministers Center and the rest is history.

Last October at the IAS (International Association of Scientologists) anniversary at Saint Hill in England, Marc Arrighi was on stage accepting an award from David Miscavige (Chairman of the Board of Religious Technology Center) as an IAS Freedom Medal Winner. What that he has been recognized for longterm stellar social contribution that has made a significant difference to the people he has been helping. The IAS Freedom Medal is a very prestigious award, and Marc certainly earned it.

The photo here, at the top, is a group of kids who recently had a study technology seminar from the Arrighis' group. The kids love these seminars. Amazing. Just remembering back to my school there wasn't much I could get excited about after kindergarten. Well okay, 2nd grade maybe. That's about when the teachers let us know school wasn't supposed to be fun.

The thing about study technology is that it makes learning fun again. It's pretty amazing.

There's an excellent text book that's used by VMs. It's called the Scientology Handbook. There's a chapter on study tech in it. It's all based on discoveries L. Ron Hubbard made when training Scientologists to be able to audit (Scientology term meaning "Listen and compute" which stands for Scientology counseling).

But what it's really all about is these kids. What else is there worth doing but helping people? And these kids really tell the tale with their excitement and friendliness. Don't cha think?



No matter how bad it is, Something CAN Be Done About It!
Learn how with the Scientology Handbook based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard

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