THE WAY TO HAPPINESS IS ON THE MOVE TO RESTORE CALM TO TAMAULIPAS, MEXICO
How do you easily reach youth across a whole Mexican state? That question was answered when The Way to Happiness (TWTH) chapter of the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas mounted a large TV screen and speakers on a truck with The Way to Happiness sign and went school to school and community to community with the 21 precepts literally in tow.
When peace in Tamaulipas was shattered after armed conflict flared between the Zetas and the Gulf drug cartels in 2010, some cities bordering Texas became “ghost towns” as residents fled the violence. The conflict included the massacre of 72 migrants in 2010 believed to be linked to the Zetas. Ciudad Mante, the Tamaulipas city where the chapter is based, deteriorated from calm and peaceful into chaos and terror. The city eventually became known as a location of clandestine cemeteries for the victims of the cartels.
The Way to Happiness chapter therefore went into action with their Good News newsletters to counter the alarming headlines splashed across Tamaulipas newspapers. The newsletters included a chapter of The Way to Happiness, which they then distributed home-to-home in Ciudad Mante. However, when the low level of literacy in the area prevented some from receiving the message from the newsletter, they had The Way to Happiness public service announcements airing every day on the local station. Such messages as Precept 4 “Love and Help Children,” Precept 8 “Do Not Murder,” Precept 9 “Don’t Do Anything Illegal,” and Precept 19 “Try Not to Do Things to Others That You Would Not Like Them to Do to You” played across the TV screens.
But this wasn’t enough and that is why in 2014, the TV screen found its way onto a truck that has since spent four years traveling across Tamaulipas, on average reaching more than 18,000 children a year. This resulted in one TV channel airing a three-hour program about TWTH, featuring interviews with students who shared how TWTH changed their lives for the better. Then TWTH PSAs began airing on Organización Radiofónica Tamaulipeca radio every hour, reaching more than 300,000 across the state. Not to neglect their home city, five radio stations in Ciudad Mante also started playing the PSAs, which aired on a radio station in the state’s capital, Ciudad Victoria, as well.
The TWTH Tamaulipas team continues to restore calm and security to their beloved state.
TAKING ACTION
Form a Way to Happiness Chapter
The Way to Happiness is a worldwide, grassroots activity with over 110 million booklets distributed by individuals in 117 languages. From the United States to the United Kingdom, and all across South Africa, South America, Australia, Taiwan and nearly everywhere in between—people are spreading The Way to Happiness in every major country of Earth.
We depend on our volunteers and chapters to accomplish our mission. To join an existing chapter or start a group in your city, contact us or go to thewaytohappiness.org and fill out the form.
To see how the TWTH message resonates with farmers and villagers in Zambia, watch scientology.tv. Teddy, a priest, introduced The Way to Happiness to the poverty-stricken African nation’s people.
HELP RESTORE TRUST
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.