Debsalem Bloom holds a master’s degree in social work and has over 30 years’ experience in the field, mostly caring for homeless children and working in severely impoverished communities. She is an energy healer, Reiki master, artist, musician and writer. She also works as a specialist tour guide, taking people to sacred sites along shorelines and mountain ranges. Her services have extended from social and political struggles to assisting in integrating nature and humanity; awakening the human consciousness to realize that we are all part of an interconnected web of life, including our beautiful planet.

Debsalem is based in Cape Town, South Africa. She was a political activist and peace worker during the anti-apartheid era. She worked with children who were being tortured in prisons, and was involved in a network that organized international media exposure of the State of Emergency in the country. Her life was often at risk, exacerbated by her family history. Her grandfather, H.M. Basner, who had been a senator in parliament, gave Nelson Mandela one of his first jobs as a qualified lawyer and passionately supported Mandela’s political activities. Her grandfather and Mandela fled the country together and were forced into exile. She grew up in a home that was periodically raided and ram-shacked by the apartheid police looking for evidence and clues as to Mandela’s whereabouts.

The name “Debsalem” means prophetess of peace and “Bloom” is like the first flower in spring. She is a flower child, born in the 1960’s with a grandmother who was a florist and a mother, a gardener. Her father was a medical doctor in the destitute townships of South Africa and she went to work with him frequently from the age of 3 years old. She is a single mother who has raised two ‘suns’.