Scientology-Sponsored Youth Group Helps Prevent Death From Malaria for Congo Refugees

October 28, 2009

	Youth for Human Rights Tampa Bay took on a project that brought the Universal Declaration of Human Rights home to all who participated, specifically Article 3—The Right to Life.

Tampa, Florida—Sponsored by the Church of Scientology of Tampa, Youth for Human Rights of Tampa Bay helped guarantee a vital human right to an entire camp of refugees in Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo—the Right to Life. They did this by raising enough money to provide bed nets for some 200 refugees.

Why bed nets? Every year nearly one million people die of malaria—the number one killer of African children. Malaria strikes more than 500 million people each year and kills more than a million. In fact, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, every 30 seconds someone dies of malaria somewhere in the world.

Mosquitoes are the leading cause of the spread of malaria and inadequate protection from these insects makes refugees in camps the most vulnerable to infection. Insecticide-treated bed nets provided by the United Nations Foundation’s Nothing but Nets campaign protect potential victims from mosquitoes when these insects are most likely to strike, while their victims sleep. The Nothing But Nets campaign, created in 2006, has raised more than $27 million for bed nets to save children’s lives.

Asking their friends, “Would you save a life for $10?” the Youth for Human Rights volunteers raised enough funds to send nets to the Bukavu refugee camp that will protect more than 200 refugees from contracting this killer disease.

In 1948, the United Nations called upon member countries to cause the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be “disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.” Article 3 of the Universal Declaration is the Right to Life.

Programs such as this which involve young people with real-life examples of human rights are the best form of education, and they teach youth another lesson, as expressed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard: “Human Rights must be made a fact, not an idealistic dream.”

For more information on Youth for Human Rights, visit their web site at www.youthforhumanrights.org or the Scientology site.