| About Star of Life (SOL) |
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Who we are The Star of Life Healing Center is a place where people from all over the world can come to work on self-awareness through experiencing various types of holistic styles of therapies, instructive seminars, group work, meditation and retreats.
Our activities and programs are both individual and group work that is educational and therapeutic, following a combined holistic and humanitarian philosophy.
We create opportunities for people to come together and share their struggles, release blocks and become conscious about the choices they have available to them for the immediate alleviation of symptoms and disharmonious emotions.
We also endeavor to create more equality by advocating for human rights and social justice. We work to connect diverse populations, particularly Brazilian immigrants and low-income families to the resources available to them primarily in the areas of health and violence prevention.
We reconnect people to their roots and encourage them to use their artistic abilities to foster and nurture creativity and culture. This is also a way to raise self-esteem and empower individuals to look for creative ways to solve problems or cope with difficulties.
Our main office is located in Cambridge, but we do a lot of home outreach and nature retreat programs in the surroundings of New England areas. We are strongly committed to improving the quality of life and opportunities for education to less fortunate communities as to achieve more equality and balance among social groups, plus to create a world with less violence and crime. We understand that education is a building block and lever for a healthier society! We also understand that hunger, disease and pain are needs to be addressed before individuals and groups can be strong and interested in learning different disciplines or tools to improve their lives. On that note, we strive to alleviate thier hunger and pain; to create opportunities for education and empowerment; to raise levels of awareness regarding resources for health and well-being; and ultimately, to create a better world for all.
Our services in the USA Our International services in Brazil International services other than Brazil Workshops, spiritual retreats and treatments have been offered in Sweden, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Argentina, Colombia and India. Relief efforts and education have reached USA, Spain, England and Sri Lanka (but mostly in Brazil and USA).
A little bit about our history The Star of Life Healing Center was established in the year 2000 by Danuza Aquino after she had lived with the vision and mission for the healing center for over 20 years! Danuza Aquino was raised in poverty in Brazil and had to learn to survive counting on her deep faith and hope for a better life, plus a strong commitment to improve herself and help others.
The tradition of helping others and building a sense of communion for the health and improvement of the community as a whole was already part of the daily activities of her grandparents and generations prior to them. Her parents where also very important in carrying out this tradition since her father has been involved in charity and community development through artistic endeavors for over 30 years, and her mother is a strong spiritual women undoubtedly committed to help her children stay healthy and seek happiness.
Danuza’s father- Joao Mateus D’Aquino met her mother Izabel Martins Aquino in a small city in Brazil called Jaboticatubas (where Izabel is from), and since then her father has been very active in that community always helping the poor and getting involved in activities to promote art and social development. That is mainly the reason why the first two cities to benefit from the programs developed by the Star of life Healing Center where Jaboticatubas and Belo Horizonte (where Danuza was raised). These cities and their resources are familiar to Danuza and where easier for her to expand the work without creating too much financial burden.
After years following the footsteps of her father’s charitable activities and being inspired by her mother’s faith, Danuza became a true seeker for the answers she needed to improve her life and help others. She immersed herself in studies and experiences that would improve her understanding of spiritual and human development. She became a spiritual counselor at the age of 16 and never stopped furthering her knowledge and self-awareness about holistic ways to improve health and quality of life.
Danuza moved to the USA in 1994 when she reunited with her older Brother Dauro Aquino, who is also a true seeker and spiritual leader. From that reunion, the vision for the healing center begun to grow and take a form that could not longer be contained simply inside Danuza or in the Aquino family. Danuza have opened her doors to friends and interested individuals seeking spiritual growth and health by offering to counsel, treat and teach them on a daily basis. As a child, she already had healing abilities and could perceive human suffering with great compassion. As her work became more popular and the charitable activities in Brazil begun to grow and receive more help, it became necessary to establish an organization to support and structure the work. The decision to open a healing Center in partnership with her brother had to wait a few years before she had proper documentation to open an organization in the USA.
In 1999 and 2000 Danuza wrote the first proposed paper for the organization as part of the graduation project for the Brennan Healing Science School, which inspired her to establish the organization at the same time of her graduation in June of 2000. At that time, Danuza and Dauro were partners but no board was defined.
In 2003 the organization formed the first by-laws and board of directors, which consisted of Danuza Aquino, Dauro Aquino, Waldirene Almeida, Elza Hotz, Simone Giardine, Rosana Gijsen, Cristina Capobianco and Marcio Roberto. We started with one contributing member and several non-contributing members who participated and helped in different activities of the Healing Center. Valdisa Moura and Iodete Rossi were also active volunteers and collaborators. Other contributors included many artists, couseling professionals and spiritual leaders.
In June of 2005 we started the process to become fully registered and recognized as a non-profit organization and established a new board of directors and new by-laws. The board consisted of Danuza Aquino as the president, Dauro Aquino as vice-president, Cristina Capobianco as treasure and Marcio Roberto as secretary. Waldirene Almeida, Elza Hotz, Simone Giardine and Rosana Gijsen continued to be volunteers and contributors in several programs, as well as Valdisa Moura and Iodete Rossi. We also developed a partnership with Standardcode (USA) in order to provide low-income individuals with the opportunity to learn English and computer skills. Another important partnership was reinforced with the day-care center in Brazil- "Creche Irma Maria Dolores", in order to develop educational programs for the empoverished and children at risk for violence and crime. This partnership (thanks to Elzira Marques) has been a great gift to facilitate our programs in Jaboticatubas, MG. In June of 2006 we invited Marcia Koike to join the board of directors and added several contributing members such as Tim Kunz, Elizabeth Amrien, Maria Skufca and others. Marcia Koike was elected and begun as secretary in June of 2006. At that time, Dauro asked to be temprarily excused from the meetings for personal reasons and continue to maintain his functions as vice-president. Marcio was transfered from secretary to artistic educator and outreach coordinator. We currently hold several programs in the USA and three major programs in Brazil in the regions of Minas Gerais, Bahia and Espirito Santo. Our current status is still pending as non-profit organization, so we are a not-for-profit group under the same board of directors established in 2005 with a new member Marcia Koike.
For more information about Danuza 's background or the background of other directors go to their pages in this web site. |