Happiness Flourishes in Venezuela
HELPING A NATION RESET ITS MORAL COMPASS
The Way to Happiness chapter in Venezuela takes on all levels of their country’s social strata in its work to instill morals in the youth of the country. They target densely populated pockets where high rates of crime and violence breed, and they also reach out to educators, police, the military and others to help the general population of Venezuela.
In one education system, The Way to Happiness team has provided teachers with the 21 precepts of The Way to Happiness (TWTH) as a tool to help their students establish a path to moral and happy lives. There are now 60 teachers in 35 schools implementing the TWTH curriculum contained in the educator’s package.
In recognition of the significant contribution of The Way to Happiness to helping youth lead better lives, the Venezuela Educators Federation named the book’s author, humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard, as “Educator of the Year.”
On Margarita Island off the coast of Venezuela, TWTH held seminars for 300 officers from the Island Police Force, the National Guard, Fire Department and City Hall. In their training, the police and civic officials were taken through the 21 precepts, watched the 21 Public Service Announcements that visually illustrate each precept, viewed the feature-length The Way to Happiness book-on-film, and studied the full curriculum in the educator’s package.
At the close of the seminar, the attendees were certified by The Way to Happiness Venezuela chapter and further training was scheduled, due to the impact and response to the initial seminar.
Local media followed the newsworthy event and covered it in Sol de Margarita newspaper, headlined “Security Forces Receive Common Sense Seminar,” and in another newspaper, Diario Caribazo, headlined “Seminar ‘Ethics & Values’ held at the SIGO University.”
“...IN JUST ONE THREE-MONTH PERIOD, TWTH VENEZUELA DISTRIBUTED 25,000 BOOKLETS, DELIVERED SEMINARS TO MORE THAN 300 POLICE OFFICERS AND APPEARED ON FIVE TELEVISION AND RADIO SHOWS.”
Following the seminar, The Way to Happiness chapter teamed up with police from the Riots and Street Meetings Control Division and the Nueva Esparta Police Institute to launch their campaign in Margarita. The police groups and The Way to Happiness volunteers fanned out across Bolivar Square in the heart of the island and distributed over 7,000 booklets.
As for that first group in TWTH Venezuela’s action plan—to target high-crime areas—they took their message to Santa Cruz city, with one of the highest crime rates in the nation. Here, in a short period of time, they directly reached some 1,000 students and distributed 5,000 booklets.
Overall in their country, in just one three-month period, TWTH Venezuela distributed 25,000 booklets, delivered seminars to more than 300 police officers and appeared on five television and radio shows.
And there is yet one more arena where TWTH Venezuela takes its happiness message—into the corporate world. They encourage companies to create their own custom covers and distribute The Way to Happiness to employees, clients, vendors and anyone they choose. One firm distributed 1,000 booklets with its own cover to students in schools in the area.
FACTS
MAKING AN IMPACT IN COLOMBIA
Colombian police have delivered The Way to Happiness seminars to 3 million citizens and distributed booklets to over 20 percent of the population. The result has been called “the Colombian Miracle”—a significant drop in the crime rate nationwide. Concurrently, Colombian tourism has increased eight times more than that of other Latin American nations.
HELPING OTHERS FIND THE WAY TO HAPPINESS
The Way to Happiness Foundation International works to reverse the moral decay of society by restoring trust and honesty through widespread distribution of the 21 precepts. Donations support production and distribution of The Way to Happiness booklet and curriculum material.