This year marks the 100th anniversary of scouting, a program whose mission is "to help build a better world where people are self-fulfilled as individuals and play a constructive role in society," and which "promotes peace in local and global communities by recognizing the needs of young people in a rapidly changing environment."
 | The Volunteer Ministers Tour provided a workshop to 20 students and 4 instructors of the Public Training Scouts (PTS) of West Bengal. |
To accomplish this there are many scouting programs, teaching basic life skills and providing young people with the experience of working in groups where one learns to get along better with one's fellows. Merit badges, attesting to proficiency and skill, are awarded for everything from athletics, camping, horsemanship and woodcarving to oceanography and nuclear science.
But conditions in life today are far different than those 100 years ago, and present challenges for which there are no adequate scouting curricula. And this is not just the case in the West. It affects countries all over the world.
By way of example, a survey released just last week by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) found that workplace stress has become an important issue in the country and recommends that employers provide resources to help their employees overcome this problem, and there are other aspects of stress that affect people of all ages and all strata of society.
And whereas scouts learn first-aid, they have lacked training in handling the emotional and spiritual factors for which people need help in today's world.
Over the past year, a team of volunteers called the Scientology Volunteer Ministers (VM) India Goodwill Tour has been training health-care professionals, police, firemen and the newly formed National Disaster Response Force so they know how to contend with the "human element" in their jobs. And the VM Tour has now extended this service to 20 students and 4 instructors of the Public Training Scouts (PTS) of West Bengal.
It is only fitting that India, with its long tradition of spiritual enlightenment, has embraced this program.
L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Scientology religion, developed drills to improve the individual's ability to communicate, a vital skill for anyone trying to help someone. Mr. Hubbard also discovered methods to help people overcome the mental and spiritual factors that precipitate accidents and injuries and cut across speedy recovery. These techniques are called "Assists," and they are an effective complement to the first-aid skills scouts learn. As a matter of fact, they have come to be known as "spiritual first-aid."
In an essay on philosophy, Mr. Hubbard once wrote, "Using modern developments in the sciences, it became possible to approach again the basic problems: What is man? What is his relationship to the universe? What is the universe? Scientology, after a third of a century of careful research and investigation can answer, with scientific truth those questions and prove the answers. This is rather startling."
 | The scouts gained confidence, pride and skill—all qualities that scouting was originally created to develop. |
As the scouts learned first-hand, by studying these techniques which were easy to master and tremendously effective, they are not only able to help people with their problems and difficulties, but they came away from the workshop with new confidence, pride and skill—all qualities that scouting was originally created to develop.
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