Neighbors Welcome the Scientology Volunteer Ministers and Join the Campaign to Help Bogotá Stay Well 

The Scientology Stay Well campaign assumes even greater importance in Colombia with the increase in new COVID-19 cases in the country. 

Teams of Scientology Volunteer Ministers dressed in bright yellow jackets and protective gear picked up copies of educational booklets on prevention at the Church of Scientology Bogotá and saturated their neighborhood with information anyone can use to help themselves and others stay well.

With the message ”an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure,” volunteers brought thousands of copies of educational booklets to businesses and residences. These materials describe the basic principles of prevention in a way anyone can understand and put to use at home or at work.

The National Health Institute of Colombia reported a record number of 5,336 newly confirmed COVID-19 infections and 187 deaths July 10, making the use of prevention even more urgent now than it was before.

Volunteer Ministers loaded up with boxes of three educational booklets: How to Keep Yourself & Others Well, How to Protect Yourself & Others with a Mask & Gloves and How to Prevent the Spread of Illness with Isolation. 

“When we entered one store, the manager told me he was one of the first cases of COVID-19 in Colombia,” said a Volunteer Minister (VM) named Juan. “He felt grateful, because having lived through it, he knows there is nothing more important than prevention. Managers of other stores were just as excited to know they are now part of a network of prevention help.” 

“Neighbors and business owners were so happy to be able to promote prevention to others,” said a VM named Jorge. “Having this information created a sense of security and stability because they knew what to do and could share this with others,” said Nicolas, another Bogotá VM. 

As for being able to help others with this information, the volunteers described it as “an amazing experience,” “phenomenal” and “unforgettable,” because they saw the impact of what they were doing. “At one store the manager said he wanted 10,000 booklets so he could place copies in every branch of his supermarket chain,” said Juan. “With tears in his eyes, he told us that he was putting the displays in the most prominent locations in each of the stores.”

The booklets come in custom-designed boxes that fold into counter displays and invite people to “please take one.” On the back of the booklets, a QR code connects to the How to Stay Well Prevention Resource Center on the Scientology website, where these and other prevention materials are available in 21 languages—all free of charge. This includes brief videos illustrating the key information, making it easy to understand what a virus is, how it spreads, and the actions anyone can take to protect themselves and their families.

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Distribution of the educational booklets began in May in communities around Scientology Churches and Missions across the globe. The Church of Scientology International Dissemination and Distribution Center made this possible by printing and shipping out 5 million copies of Stay Well booklets.

The Church of Scientology Volunteer Ministers program is a religious social service created in the mid-1970s by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard. It constitutes one of the largest and most visible international independent relief forces. A Volunteer Minister’s mandate is to be “a person who helps his fellow man on a volunteer basis by restoring purpose, truth and spiritual values to the lives of others.”