Gaetano Cerchiara: Championing the Rights of Others

Meet a Scientologist—Gaetano Cerchiara: Championing the Rights of Others Cision Wire

A successful real estate agent, Gaetano Cerchiara’s passion is human rights. His video is one of 200 “Meet a Scientologist” videos available on the Scientology website at http://www.scientology.org/.

Gaetano Cerchiara had it made—or so it seemed. He appeared to be happy, with a good job and financial security. But he knew something was missing.“I felt there had to be more to life than the material. Every night I went to bed with unanswered questions,” he says. “My life was full of question marks.”
Learning about Scientology from a friend in 1993, the religion’s spirituality and emphasis on helping others impressed him immediately.“Finally I found something that explained what I’d only had a vague feeling about before,” Cerchiara says.

Several years ago his sister Fiorella, co-founder and president of the Association for Human Rights and Tolerance of Italy, introduced Gaetano to the Scientology-sponsored human rights initiative and asked him to help. “Fiorella opened my eyes to human rights violations that are going on today, particularly those affecting children and youth,” says Gaetano. “I felt I had to take responsibility to make others aware of this, so I joined the Association.”

In 2007, an educator from Accra, Ghana asked for help to raise funds for a school in his city. The Church of Scientology of Milano and the Association for Human Rights and Tolerance of Italy took on the project and the school was opened in 2008. Continuing their work in Ghana, they built another school in the village of Twewaa in January 2010 that provides elementary education for the first time for the children of the community and the surrounding area.

“Human rights is a core belief in Scientology,” says Gaetano Cerchiara. “It is part of the Scientology Creed and the Code of a Scientologist. To me, it is intolerable when children are abused or deprived of their right to an education and a future. I am determined to do everything in my power to make human rights a fact, and I firmly believe we can do so.”

View the Gaetano Cerchiara video at Scientology.org