DANNI SUZUKI
História
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Over more than two decades of her career, she has turned her visibility into a powerful tool for social transformation.
For over 24 years, the actress has been dedicated to social causes, actively engaging in a wide range of charitable initiatives. As an ambassador, she has represented projects focused on access to education, sports, safe drinking water, food, and culture, with special attention to Brazilian and refugee children.
Over the past eight years, she has deepened her social work with refugee families. Her efforts range from emotional intelligence and neurobehavioral courses for refugees and migrants—tools that support adaptation and professional integration—to promoting game programming and design courses, expanding educational horizons for children and teenagers.
Across Brazil, she fosters the development of children and adolescents through art, culture, and sports, viewing these practices as foundations for building new perspectives and social inclusion. Her commitment to humanitarian causes has led her to immerse herself in the realities of people forced to leave their homes in challenging contexts, such as Syria, where she visited refugee camps, as well as Lebanon, Turkey, and the border between Brazil and Venezuela. These lived experiences not only broadened her understanding of suffering and resilience, but were also essential to the creation of her upcoming project: a documentary on the reality faced by refugee children.
UNHCR
The UN Refugee Agency
Actress Danni Suzuki is recognized as a High-Profile Supporter of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Brazil—a role that positions her as a prominent voice for the refugee cause, which today affects more than 120 million people worldwide who have been displaced by wars, conflicts, and climate-related disasters. Her first public campaign with UNHCR, titled “#EcoeEssasVozes”, launched with the release of a powerful audio piece based on real testimonies from refugee women, aiming to give visibility to authentic and deeply moving stories.
Since then, she has engaged in a series of initiatives, including campaigns supporting refugee children (2021), Giving Tuesday (2022), participation in World Refugee Day, and emergency appeals for Ukraine (2022) and for the earthquakes in Syria and Turkey (2023). Danni has also been the leading public figure in UNHCR’s hunger campaigns in Brazil (2023, 2024, 2025). acnur.org/br
DIGITAL PASSPORT
Círculo de Hospitalidade
The course “Digital Passport: Emotional and Artificial Intelligence in the Integration of Refugees and Migrants” is an initiative led by the NGO Círculos de Hospitalidade, an organization that has worked for more than a decade in the field of migration and refuge in Brazil, in partnership with Danni Suzuki—an actress, director, TV host, and professor in the Postgraduate Program in Neuroscience and Behavior at PUC-RS—and guest lecturer Kamila Almeida, a journalist and specialist in communication, active listening, and storytelling. She leads LAPP – Learn and Approach, a company focused on reducing communication noise within organizations by bringing leaders and teams closer together. Kamila Almeida holds a Master’s and PhD in Social Sciences, as well as a postdoctoral fellowship in Visual Sociology.
With around 80 enrolled students, the course brought together migrants and refugees from nine different countries, with the goal of strengthening self-esteem, emotional intelligence, and digital skills among people in refugee and migration contexts—promoting not only social integration, but also autonomy and a sense of belonging in a new territory.
Through a sensitive and practical approach, Digital Passport offers pathways for participants to reconnect with themselves, their new place of residence, and today’s world. The program addresses topics such as purpose, empathy, artificial intelligence, communication, and the job market, preparing students to navigate the emotional and practical challenges of starting over in another country.
“True integration is about providing tools. When we welcome people with awareness and hospitality, we offer much more than help: we offer a path.”
— Danni Suzuki
ZION SCHOOL and
SOS CHILDREN'S VILLAGE
GAME EDUCATION REFUGEE YOUTH
Danni Suzuki is the leading champion of a new, transformative project that connects cutting-edge education, social inclusion, and professional future. In partnership with SOS Children’s Villages, the program provides full scholarships for young Venezuelan refugees to begin a two-year training program at ZION School, a national benchmark in education for game development, 3D modeling, and audiovisual production.
SOS Children’s Villages is one of the world’s largest humanitarian organizations dedicated to protecting children, adolescents, and families, present in more than 130 countries. In Brazil, it has operated since 1967 through family-strengthening programs, alternative care services, and the integration of migrant and refugee families—focused on ensuring every child’s right to grow up with dignity, protection, and love.
The initiative is part of the “Brasil Sem Fronteiras” program, developed together with UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency), and aims to prepare adolescents for a growing job market by bringing together purpose, passion, and real career opportunities. With enthusiasm and active involvement, Danni builds partnerships, takes part in the outreach campaign, and closely follows the students’ progress—reinforcing her commitment to welcoming, educating, and empowering young people who are rebuilding their lives in Brazil.
WAVES for WATER
Waves for Water is a global initiative founded by surfer Jon Rose, with the mission of providing access to safe drinking water for communities facing water scarcity or contaminated sources. Through simple technologies—such as portable filters and rainwater harvesting systems—the initiative has already impacted millions of people in more than 40 countries. The project’s focus is to empower communities themselves to become agents of change, promoting health, autonomy, and sustainability through affordable, replicable solutions.
https://www.wavesforwater.org/
Danni Suzuki served as a Waves for Water ambassador in Brazil, aligning her social activism with a commitment to environmental and humanitarian causes. In partnership with the organization, she led actions in communities such as Cidade de Deus (Rio de Janeiro), Jardim Gramacho (Rio de Janeiro), the Sertão region (Pernambuco), Pavones (Costa Rica), and Lebanon (Bekaa Valley)—where she installed and distributed water purification filters, training local leadership to turn contaminated water into potable water. Her active, educational presence in these initiatives reinforces her mission to promote dignity and quality of life for underserved populations—always through empathy, knowledge, and direct action.
OPERATION WELCOME
RORAIMA - BRAZIL- VENEZUELA
In 2019, Danni Suzuki carried out a landmark humanitarian mission in northern Brazil, with the support of SOS Children’s Villages, visiting shelters under Operação Acolhida (Operation Welcome) in Roraima, on the border with Venezuela. This Brazilian government initiative—developed in partnership with UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) and several civil society organizations—aims to receive and support vulnerable Venezuelan refugees and migrants by providing shelter, food, documentation, and pathways for integration in Brazil.
During the visit, Danni had direct contact with refugee families—especially children and teenagers facing the difficult journey of a forced new beginning. She documented testimonies of pain, strength, and resilience, took part in activities with young people to strengthen emotional bonds, and closely followed the screening and internal relocation process (interiorização). Her trip to Roraima marked the beginning of an even deeper involvement with the refugee cause in Brazil.
With a human-centered perspective, Danni reaffirmed her commitment to SOS Children’s Villages, an organization active since 1949 in more than 130 countries, and which, in Brazil, develops programs focused on care, integration, and family strengthening—paying special attention to Venezuelan refugee families since the start of the migration crisis.
SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGES
"MI CASA, TU CASA"
Danni Suzuki directed the video for the “Mi Casa, Tu Casa” campaign, produced by Jornal Joca in partnership with UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency) and Hands On Human Rights.
Led by children, the project aims to collect children’s books in Portuguese and Spanish to set up 13 library lockers in shelters hosting Venezuelan refugees and migrants in Roraima.
For the video, she invited several children to deliver the message, including her son Kauai; Stella, daughter of Leticia Spiller; Matheus and Arthur, sons of Juliana Knust; Conrado, son of Carlos Bonow; and Antonio, son of Aline Wirley and Igor Rickli.
“Children need to be heard and supported. This new generation has so much attitude—they show up in a very strong and coherent way, truly calling for a more harmonious and empathetic world. They are the future of humanity. I think it’s fantastic that they’re already taking a stand for a more constructive world!”— Danni
At the end of 2020, she visited the shelters in Roraima to film part of her documentary, “S.Ó.S. Refugee Children.” The topic she will address is precisely the perspective of refugee children in their arduous journey to survive and start over in a new country.
“MI CASA, TU CASA” PROJECT
MAKE a WISH
MAKE-A-WISH
Make-A-Wish creates transformative experiences for children and adolescents with serious illnesses by granting their wishes. Founded in 1980, it is the world’s leading children’s wish-granting organization, having fulfilled more than 550,000 wishes in 50 countries worldwide—together with generous donors, supporters, staff, and more than 30,000 volunteers around the globe.
In Brazil, Make-A-Wish was founded in 2008 and is one of the 40 affiliates of Make-A-Wish® International, with more than 3,400 wishes fulfilled across the country. Thanks to this work, Make-A-Wish® Brasil is certified by the Municipal Council for the Rights of Children and Adolescents (CMDCA). Danni Suzuki was a Make-A-Wish ambassador in 2022.