DURHAM, N.C. — A Triangle-based MMA fighter is on a mission to help prevent gender-based violence.

D'Juan Owens is preparing for an international self-defense tour, teaching preventative measures to women and having conversations about consent with men. 

It’s important work, but also personal.

“I had a cousin who had a family tragedy," Owens said. "It was like a murder-suicide and that’s kind of stayed with me. That was any entry point into understanding more not only about domestic violence, gender-based violence, [but] gender oppression in general.”

It’s not the first time Owens has taught these measures overseas. 

In 2016 while supporting an organization in Uganda, he held an impromptu self-defense class. 

“There might have been 70 people there," Owens said. "I didn’t have a flyer, I didn’t put anything up online, but word of mouth just spread that there is going to be a free community self-defense seminar and people were coming from miles and miles.”

He calls this work his calling, using his martial arts training to teach in areas where accountability measures and reliable law enforcement is not part of everyday life. 

“There was an elderly woman, she... while I’m teaching a mount escape, a mount escape is like how to escape when someone is on top of you, everyone knows this is a tough position to get out of, and she just walked onto the platform where we were teaching, while instruction was going on, and just hugged me,” Owens recalled from a seminar outside of Uganda.

His goal is to now offer 30 free community seminars with dates already planned in London, Nigeria, and the U.S. The funding is coming out of his pocket, but he says it is well worth the cost. 

“This is not something you have to convince people the importance of, everyone knows and I also feel that. Because we all know we should all be more active in doing something about it,” Owens said.

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