2010-01-18 23:41:25 - Church of Scientology Organizes Charter flight from JFK airport to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to bring doctors, nurses and other relief workers to help in the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake

NEW YORK (January 18, 2010)--A charter flight organized by the Church of Scientology carried 126 doctors, nurses, emergency medical technicians and Scientology Volunteer Ministers to Port-au-Prince where the group arrived Sunday. Assisted by Homeland Security, the plane left JFK International Airport Saturday to provide urgently needed help in Haiti in the wake of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit the island on January 12.

The effort brought together medical doctors and nurses from the Association of Haitian Physicians Abroad (Association des Médecins Haïtiens a l'Etranger), paramedics and emergency medical technicians from New York City and New Jersey led by the Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps, and Scientology Volunteer Ministers from New York, Tampa and elsewhere.

The group arrived in Port-au-Prince Sunday afternoon, after

spending the night in Miami due to delayed departure from JFK as a result of the security alert that closed the airport Saturday afternoon.

Upon arrival in Haiti, the group was escorted to an area of the city where non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and relief organizations are headquartered. They met with officials of other relief organizations, including Doctors Without Borders, to coordinate their efforts and to bring their reinforcements to the greatly overtaxed medical teams.

The Puerto Rican government has chartered a ship arriving Tuesday to bring more Scientology Volunteer Ministers and their 100-foot-by-20-foot bright yellow tent to Haiti. The tent, and a half-dozen other Volunteer Ministers yellow tents donated by Churches of Scientology, will be erected on the grounds of the shattered Presidential Palace to form a hospital and trauma relief and grief counseling center.

Teams of Scientology Volunteer Ministers from throughout the U.S., Mexico, Europe and elsewhere will provide administrative and organizational support to the medical teams, distribute supplies and provide trauma relief and grief counseling to the victims and their families.

"We had to reach out to provide substantial and meaningful help to the victims of this disaster," said Pat Harney, a spokesperson for the Scientology Volunteer Ministers who is heading up the team in Haiti. "We have an outpouring of support from Scientologists and others around the world and we are underway in getting much-needed aid to the people of Port-au-Prince."

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps is an embracive program of the Church of Scientology to provide community service, disaster relief and emergency response. Created more than 30 years ago by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard, the program has expanded to 203,000 Volunteer Ministers worldwide who have served at 145 worst-case disaster sites, including Ground Zero after 9/11, the Southeast Asia tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.

For more information and to learn how to contribute to the relief effort visit the Scientology Volunteer Ministers blog: blog.volunteerministers.org.