Ottawa residents gathered on Parliament Hill for Ottawa’s first “Walk In Her Shoes” event to walk in solidarity for women and girls around the world.
The event took place on March 7, a day before International Women’s Day, and prompted participants to walk from Parliament Hill to City Hall. “Walk In Her Shoes” was hosted by Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE), a humanitarian organization dedicated to fighting global poverty.
While the annual walk has taken place in several cities in Canada and globally, including Vancouver and Calgary, this was the first time the walk took place in Ottawa.
Despite cold, rainy weather and a shortened route, participants came out to walk and were encouraged to contribute donations to CARE to help women and families in East African countries access proper nutrition.
“In the immediate term, we are looking at eradicating famine in several countries,” said Darcy Knoll, communications specialist for CARE Canada. “But looking broadly we focus our efforts on humanitarian action. We help developing countries in times of emergency and also to help prevent it.”
On average, women and girls in developing countries take 10,000 steps a day to collect the basics they need to survive, such as water, food and firewood, according to CARE.
“[Walk In Her Shoes] is about the time spent walking,” Knoll said. “Women and girls don’t have time to get an education or earn an income when they are walking vast distances just to get the basics every day.”
Participants heard speeches from Sophie Grégoire Trudeau and Celina Caesar-Chavannes, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development, before embarking on a planned 10,000 step walk.
“Change does not occur in a country because it’s fair or it’s time or it’s just,” Trudeau said to the crowd. “Change occurs because people get engaged in the process. And you are engaging in the process. And we are bringing change today.”
Due to poor weather conditions the walk was shortened. Marchers walked from Parliament, down Elgin, and onto Laurier Avenue to City Hall.
The aim of the event was to loosely simulate the distance many women have to travel in order to survive, to draw attention to the problem and find a solution, according to Knoll.
Seventeen-year-old high school student Pascal Couterier-Rose, a member of the Feminism Club at École secondaire publique De La Salle who participated in the walk, said she hoped the event would make a statement.
“When there is a huge group, people pay attention so hopefully we also draw attention to the problems at hand,” she said.
Various speakers took the stand at the end of the walk at City Hall to urge people to stay aware and active in the fight for women’s rights around the world.
– Photo by Lisa Xu
