Children are often the hardest affected by the shock and trauma of disasters like last week's earthquake and tsunami that devastated the Solomon Islands. But the Scientology Disaster Relief Team is helping the children of the island of Gizo recover from the effects of this experience.

Children are often the hardest affected by the shock and trauma of disasters like last week's earthquake and tsunami that devastated the Solomon Islands.As in other disaster zones, the children of Gizo were having trouble sleeping, a common after-effect of living through this kind of ordeal. Those who could sleep were often haunted by nightmares. They could still hear the sound of the buildings collapsing or the roar of the wave as it was about to crash down on the shore, and with every aftershock they experienced the anxiety and despair they felt when the earthquake first hit.

Experiences like these tend to rivet one's attention right at the point in time when the shock occurred, making the person feel the same emotions and fears they felt when it first happened, which is why Scientology assists are so effective in handling the mental and spiritual effects of shock and trauma. Assists are procedures developed by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Scientology religion. Because they orient the individual to his or her present environment, they break the grip of the past incident of shock or loss.

And that is exactly what happened with one group of children in a village in Gizo this week. The village leader asked the Scientology Disaster Relief team to help the children, and just a half hour later anyone arriving would have found it hard to belief these youngsters had just lived through the most harrowing experience in their lives, because they were laughing, joking and carrying on just the way they did before the tsunami ripped their lives apart one short week before.

 

The Scientology Disaster Relief Team needs volunteers and funds to continue their work in the Solomon Islands, where they are supported entirely by donations. Anyone wanting to join the team will be trained. To learn how to join the team or donate funds online visit the Scientology Volunteer Ministers web site.