Thangam Debbonaire

http://www.labour.org.uk/bristol-west-thangam-debbonaire

Bristol West, Thangam Debbonaire
Thangam has spent almost all of her working life helping to end domestic violence and promote gender equality. She does this as a practitioner, campaigner, researcher and trainer, working at local, national and international levels and with voluntary, public and private organisations. For the last fifteen years, this has been mainly with and about work with men as perpetrators and as victims, currently in her post as National Research and Training Manager for Respect, the UK national organisation for work with domestic violence perpetrators, male victims and young people using violence. Before that, her work was mainly in work with young people and children, writing and setting up prevention programmes in schools and previously supporting the development of children's projects in refuges. In the 1990s, she was National Children’s Officer at Women’s Aid England.

Thangam is a governor at a local state primary school, trustee of the University of Bristol students' union and active in the local traffic action group.

Thangam has lived in the heart of the constituency for over twenty years, walking her nephews and nieces to local schools, helping with their homework as they get older and having some of them to live with her as they reach adulthood.

When younger, Thangam was a professional cellist and continues to perform now as a happy amateur.