Many thanks to Céline Ahodékon, Union of National Employees of PSAC 1st Alternate Human Rights for BC and Yukon region for this report and some photos from the IWD memorial and vigil held in Abbotsford on March 24,25.
International Women’s Day is a day of joy and happiness for women to acknowledge and celebrate their economic, political and social achievements. Women also celebrate how far they have come in their struggle for equality, peace and development. To celebrate the event, different themes are chosen by different organizations, government and women’s groups to reflect on women issues.
In Abbotsford, our theme for IWD’s was “End Violence Against Women and Girls”. We had 2 day of celebration.
Saturday, March 24 was dedicated to a play where we raised more than $2500 for future shoe memorials, the memory march, walk4 justice and the Warm Zone in Abbotsford. 10% of the proceeds was sent to women and girls in Haiti.
Sunday, March 25 was the Shoe memorial and Vigil. We collected more than 170 pairs of shoes to honour the missing and murdered women and girls in BC. These shoes were later donated to women’s centres in BC in the names of BC’s murdered women and girls. There are more than 4000 names of missing and murdered women and girls across Canada. These names can be found in Gwynne Hunt’s book called “Rampage: the pathology of an epidemic”. The names were displayed on the wall along with the shoes during the vigil.
The guest speaker was Gladys Radek, an aboriginal woman from the “walk4justice”. I was so proud of PSAC staff in Vancouver office when Gladys said and I quote: “Oh, I love Public Service Alliance of Canada, they always support us, and they are always at our rallies in Vancouver” when I was introduced as PSAC representative at the event. We stood in a circle and Gladys laid the Shoe Memorial ceremony and told of her personal connection to the event. March 25th was a painful remembrance day, a day of sorrow and sufferings for the families of the murdered and missing women as well as for the women who have been abused and violated.
Standing in front of the displays (names, shoes and families of the victims), these thoughts came to my mind:
- Will these murdered and missing women and girls ever get to celebrate their accomplishments?
- Reading the names of the victims and looking at the victim’s families, quickly made me realize that someone lost a mother, a sister, a daughter, a niece, an aunt etc... due to violence. And when I pictured myself walking in the shoes of these families who have lost their loved ones, I became very emotional. It was a very sad day for all us, even for the passers-by who stopped to see what was going on.
Folks, whoever we might be, wherever we might come from, and whatever our gender may be, I strongly believe that violence against women affects everyone of us. Therefore, we all should be part of the solution. To do so, we need to work together to raise awareness about violence against women in all its forms. Let’s “reflect on our own behaviour so as not to promote violence against women, let’s speak publicly against violence against women. Let’s not remain silent, “Ouch, our silence hurts”. Please visit http://www.wecanbc.ca to pledge to become a change maker.
Reference: http://www.wecanbc.ca/things-you-can-do
*If you live in BC and would like to help or donate shoes for the next year’s event, please contact me at celine.ahodekon@national-component.org