This year’s International Women’s Day, participants of PIRS’ Childcare Leadership Group gathered in Surrey, BC, to Accelerate Action for gender equality. The theme Accelerate Action emphasizes the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to urgently address the systemic barriers and biases that women face, both in personal and professional spheres.
We began the event with a land acknowledgement from Kwákwaýel Simia Wendy Nahanee followed by a presentation by Simin Sobhani (Life Coach) on how to nurture the hearts and minds of children. Sharon Gregson (Provincial Spokesperson for the $10-a-day child care campaign), Lyn Verra-Lay (Artist Educator at the City of Surrey) and Safiya Ayuen (Policy & Engagement Officer at PIRS), engaged in a panel discussion on navigating common experiences of being a woman and how arts can be used as an advocacy tool.
Participants mixed and mingled over lunch and pinned positive statements on our Affirmation Board in recognition of their efforts in their personal and professional lives. Muslim participants who were fasting in observance of Ramadan were given a lunch box to take home, and of course, no PIRS event would be complete without free Pop Up Childcare on site so that participants can fully participate in our programs.
PIRS’ International Women’s Day 2025 event concluded with painting T-shirts in support of women’s empowerment. It was a fantastic opportunity for participants to enjoy art therapy for a meaningful purpose. One participant’s T-shirt accidentally smudged the red paint on her T-shirt, and while she was initially disappointed, she made a poignant reflection that we could view it as the violence that has too often been the result of patriarchal attitudes.
This event gave the fourth cohort of the Childcare Leadership Group the chance to meet one another for the first time in person as most meetings take place virtually every other week. Their meetings will continue until March 2026, when our project Building a Childcare System That Works for Immigrant and Refugee Women 2.0 comes to an end.
In the meantime, our Childcare Leadership Group will be working toward identifying, co-designing, and implementing ideas to foster system change alongside PIRS’ partner organizations to advance gender equality and amplify immigrant voices in Early Learning and Child Care. Together we can Accelerate Action to speed up the rate of progress worldwide, starting with our own communities here in Metro Vancouver.
Throughout the event, attendees signed 50 postcards to various political offices across Canada urging elected officials to Accelerate Action for gender equality. They were mailed to:
- Hon. Jenna Sudds, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development of Canada
- Hon. Marci Ien, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth of Canada
- Office of the Prime Minister of Canada
- Hon. Melanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Pierre Poilievre, Leader of the Official Opposition
- Hon. Lisa Beare, Minister of Education and Child Care of British Columbia
- Hon. Anne Kang, Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills of British Columbia
- Hon. Jodie Wickens, Minister of Children and Families of British Columbia
- Premier of British Columbia, David Eby
- Sunita Dhir, Parliamentary Secretary for International Credentials
- Jennifer Blatherwick, Parliamentary Secretary for Gender Equity of British Columbia
- Hon. Hedy Fry, MP for Vancouver Centre
- Don Davies, MP for Vancouver Kingsway
- Taleeb Noormohammed, MP for Vancouver Granville
The Childcare Leadership Group (CLG) is a PIRS program geared towards strengthening the advocacy skills of immigrant and refugee women, the majority of whom are racialized, to make $10-a-day child care a reality. CLG is the driving force of PIRS’ project called Building a Childcare System That Works for Immigrant and Refugee Women 2.0.
Why advocate for universal child care?
- Newcomers and racialized families (alongside Indigenous and Francophone families) experience more significant barriers than others in securing child care for their children.
- The lack of affordable and inclusive child care prevents mothers from participating in the workforce. With limited job opportunities, women, especially single mothers with young children, cannot balance earning and income with raising children.
- Early Learning and Child Care is a feminized sector whereby 96% of child care workers are women and 1 out of 3 child care workers are immigrants or non-permanent residents.
These are just a few of the many reasons to rally support around universal child care that is affordable, accessible, inclusive and culturally safe across Canada. As the duty of raising falls primarily on women, $10-a-day child care is crucial to supporting women’s ability to make meaningful contributions to society outside the home.