Marlene Cabenda’s Extraordinary Life
Marlene Cabenda was a trusted and admired human rights lawyer and insurance executive, yet she knew something was missing—until she found Scientology. Her profile is one of 200 “Meet a Scientologist” videos available on the Scientology website at www.scientology.org.
When Marlene Cabenda sets her mind to do something, the results are remarkable.
When Cabenda was growing up in her native Suriname, there was no university. She applied to study in the Netherlands, won acceptance and a scholarship, and at 18 moved on her own to Europe to study law.
She returned home a corporate attorney with a specialty in insurance and rose to the top of her field, eventually becoming the most senior executive in her firm—her country’s highest-placed woman in the industry.
While advancing her career, Cabenda dedicated herself to the purpose that originally led her to study law—to help those in need. She devoted her energy to humanitarian law, practicing pro bono as counsel for the Suriname Red Cross, where her work was so highly regarded she was asked to take over as president in 1985.
“I was a businesswoman. I made good money, had a nice house, traveled around the world,” says Cabenda. “But I always felt something was missing.”
Introduced to Scientology by her sister Ingrid, in 1997 Cabenda received her first auditing—spiritual counseling, from Latin audire, “to hear or listen.”
“I had been searching on a spiritual level for a very long time,” she says. “I found the answers I was looking for in my very first auditing session.”
Cabenda retired at 46, moved to Florida with her one-year-old daughter Kimberly, and began a second career—as a Scientology auditor.
“I always wanted to help,” says Cabenda, 58. “Now I really knew how.
As an auditor, no matter what the person across from you is going through, you know he or she will be smiling by the time you end the session. Their relief and happiness is also mine. That’s about as high as you can go this side of heaven.”
View the Marlene Cabenda video at www.scientology.org.
The popular “Meet a Scientologist” profiles on the Church of Scientology International Video Channel at Scientology.org now total 200 broadcast-quality documentary videos featuring Scientologists from diverse locations and walks of life. The personal stories are told by Scientologists who are educators, teenagers, skydivers, a golf instructor, a hip-hop dancer, IT manager, stunt pilot, mothers, fathers, dentists, photographers, actors, musicians, fashion designers, engineers, students, business owners and more.
A digital pioneer and leader in the online religious community, in April 2008 the Church of Scientology became the first major religion to launch its own official YouTube Video Channel, which has now been viewed by millions of visitors.