Debi Steven, Founder and CEO of Action Breaks Silence
Debi has a unique approach to gender-based violence, she is a survivor of child sexual abuse, a 6th Dan in Shotokan karate who hosts World Karate Championships but firmly believes that martial arts is NOT self defense; and has recently graduated with a Master’s Degree in Women and Child Abuse from:
Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit
The Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU) at London Metropolitan University is recognized as a center of excellence, with an international reputation for research, evaluation, training and consultancy. CWASU has a vibrant postgraduate culture; the unit was the first in Europe to run the Woman and Child Abuse MA.
Debi is driven by her a vision that all women and girls should be empowered and live their lives fear of the fear of gender-based violence. An ardent believer that to stop gender-based violence a community approach is needed, with this in mind Debi has developed the Action Breaks Silence Community Intervention to Stop Violence Against Women and Girls.
Conscious of the magnitude of GBV international Debi approached schools as micro-communities and to have a bigger chance of changing attitudes and behaviors started at primary schools’ level of educate. The Action Breaks Silence longitudinal intervention engages, educates and empowers primary school girls, boys and youth to become active bystanders to stop GBV.
She is rated as one of the top Empowerment through Self-Defense trainers in the world and one of very few people in the ‘self-defense industry’ that firmly beliefs young boys and men need to included when looking for solutions to end Violence against women and girls and the LGBTQ+ Community.
In July 2013, she founded Action Breaks Silence UK and in 2016, she founded Action Breaks Silence South Africa to deliver the Action Breaks Silence Community Intervention FREE of charge to marginalized communities in London, South Africa and India. The Action Breaks Silence Community Education Intervention delivers
The charity has already delivered these programs to over 65,000 participants in the UK, India, South Africa, the Dutch Caribbean and trained nearly 200 instructors internationally.
Awards and nominations
2015 Debi was named as a recipient of an International Women of Change Award.
2016 Point of Light by PM David Cameron in 2016 for service to the community.
2018 Debi was named as one of the World’s Top 100 Trail Blazers 2018.
2018 Won European Diversity Award - Inspirational Role Model.
2018 Action Breaks Silence won the National Diversity Award for Gender
2020 Action Breaks Silence was shortlisted for Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize and Centre for Women's Justice awards