“Saving Lives Is Our Greatest Gift” Believes Colombian EMT in Nepal with Scientology Disaster Response Team
CINAT, Colombia’s National Circle of Aid Technicians, works in partnership with the Scientology Volunteer Ministers. The group’s captain shares some insight into a day in the life of an aid worker in this earthquake-ravaged region.
A team of EMTs from Colombia’s famed National Circle of Aid Technicians (known as CINAT), in partnership with the Scientology Volunteer Ministers, spent the last month far from home—in Nepal among villagers whose very future depended upon their work.
One of the CINAT members, in Nepal on his birthday, described the best gift he has can ever remember receiving, presented to him that day—a baby, who would not have made it without their help, survived.
"Thank you for giving us the opportunity to impart our knowledge and provide humanitarian help to our brothers in Nepal."
The newborn baby suffered from severe head trauma. The CINAT/Volunteer Ministers team provided immediate first aid and sent the one-month-old infant to the hospital to receive surgery. The child pulled through and is going to make it.
“We also treated an 8-year-old boy who had been going around with a broken arm for more than two days,” said the volunteer. “We stabilized him and sent him to the hospital (for further treatment) as well.”
On one typical day, the team provided care to some 80 people in a tent city where no medical or first aid options had been available.
One was a 72-year-old woman who was near death. She was malnourished, dehydrated, afflicted with diarrhea and vomiting and had been wracked with a fever of more than 100 degrees for three days.
Her son laid her down in the tent where the CINAT team was working. A few hours later, with the proper care administered, she as able to stand up and leave the tent on her own two feet, well on the road to recovery.
The team of five CINAT members was flown to Nepal May 5 by the International Association of Scientologists (the IAS) to work on the Scientology Nepal Disaster Response Team.
“I want to thank the IAS, and in particular the Volunteer Ministers program,” said the team captain, “for giving us the opportunity to impart our knowledge and provide humanitarian help to our brothers in Nepal.”
The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Nepal Disaster response continues its work, providing relief, first aid, medical care, building temporary shelters, transporting supplies, and training Scientology Volunteer Ministers who are reaching out to those in need throughout the country
Whether serving in their communities or on the other side of the world, the motto of the Scientology Volunteer Minister is “Something can be done about it.” The program, created in the mid-1970s by L. Ron Hubbard and sponsored by the Church of Scientology International as a religious social service, constitutes one of the world’s largest and most visible international independent relief forces.
The Volunteer Minister “helps his fellow man on a volunteer basis by restoring purpose, truth and spiritual values to the lives of others.”
A global network of Volunteer Ministers mobilizes in times of man made and natural disasters, answering the call wherever needed. Collaborating with some 1,000 organizations and agencies, they have utilized their skill and experience in providing physical support and spiritual aid at hundreds of disaster sites.
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