Volunteer Ministers of the Freewinds launched their Stay Well Campaign to assist the island when getting ready to re-open their doors to visitors from across the globe.
Based on the principle that an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure, 12 Volunteer Ministers from the Freewinds distributed over 90,000 copies of educational booklets across the island in Spanish, Dutch and English. Their purpose: to help the community stay well.
The 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—help people understand the basics of prevention so they do their part to keep themselves and others well.
With Aruba’s borders recently opened to visitors, the government had issued protocols to ensure tourists could enjoy a healthy stay in the island. By understanding prevention, everyone is able to do their part to ensure the economy moves forward without a problem.
One volunteer recalled that wearing a face mask and terms like “social distancing” were foreign concepts just a few months ago, but following these measures helped bring the outbreak under control.
This is why the Volunteer Ministers also promoted the How to Stay Well Prevention Center, available in Spanish, Dutch, English and 17 other languages on the Scientology website, which makes prevention materials available, such as protocol enforcement posters and more, free of charge. The booklets can be read on the website or downloaded. More than a dozen brief videos illustrate 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. (www.scientology.org/staywell)
Island-wide distribution of these booklets began in April with the Freewinds Volunteer Ministers going through stores, government offices, hospitals, community centers, churches and schools to assist those in the community with tools to be able to deal with Covid-19 by learning all about staying well and keeping others well. The Church of Scientology International Dissemination and Distribution Center made this possible by printing and shipping the copies of the Stay Well booklets to the Freewinds to distribute in Aruba.
Now, with more and more tourists arriving—a welcome boost to the economy—shop owners see these booklets as a way to maintain the progress the island has made. Several Volunteer Ministers commented that the booklets were well received by the community and when store managers looked through the booklets, they saw how important it was to share this information with their customers.
The Manager of La Linda Department Store, said: “Thank you for helping us. I will help to deliver these booklets to my customers.”. He then went out to other nearby businesses giving out some of the booklets. And one of the owners of the Kok Optica Palm Beach commented: “This is an amazing action, which is really needed. People are not educated on this and they need to be. Just the knowledge will help to prevent anything.
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. The 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.”
For more information on the Freewinds, watch Inside Scientology: Freewinds on the Scientology Network. (www.scientology.tv/series/inside-scientology/freewinds.html)