The people of Osoyoos will show their support for women next Friday in a march up Main Street to celebrate International Women’s Day.
The second annual event, put on by the Desert Sun Counselling Centre, is based around a theme of equality for all women.
Towns like Osoyoos often struggle with availability of services like daycare, preventing women from going back to work, said Marieze Tarr, executive director of Desert Sun Counselling Centre.
“For women, a huge barrier to go back to work and to be equal partners in any relationship is access to daycare. A lot of people cannot find daycare and even if they find it, it’s so expensive that one person in the house often opts to stay home and look after the kids. Most often it’s the women,” Tarr said. “I know in our town, there’s a really struggle to find daycare, so that’s one piece of it."
It is important these events are held in small communities like Osoyoos, Tarr said, to shed light on some the issues the women in the community face, but also to show that these issues translate to an international scale as well.
“I just think that if every town or every community can do something to honour women or Women’s Day that’s a great thing because it just draws some attention to issues that women face on a daily basis,” Tarr said. “I think it’s great that we do something in our community for our community, but at the same time too remembering that we’re part of an international community of women.”
The first ever Osoyoos women’s march was held last year around the same time and saw about 30 people in attendance. This year, Tarr and the Desert Sun Counselling Centre staff are hoping to almost double that number.
The march will follow the same route this year, starting at 1 p.m. on Friday, March 6 in the Owl Pub parking lot, proceeding up Main Street and ending at McDonalds at 3 p.m. To find out more about the march, visit the Desert Sun Counselling Centre’s website.
Sophie Gray, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Osoyoos Times
