Manitoba Chinese Women’s Association celebrates community members

International Women’s Day was on Thursday, but that didn’t stop one Winnipeg group from celebrating into the weekend.

Hundreds packed into an event thrown by the Manitoba Chinese Women’s Association to recognize ordinary females in the city that go above and beyond.

Eight different women who help their city, neighbourhood or household were given awards by the association during an afternoon that looked at both gender equality and community integration.

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“International Women’s Day is really a celebration for women from all races,” event organizer Jennifer Chen said. “We want to show to the Chinese community that other ethnic communities are celebrating with us.”

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That means that, along with dances by Chinese groups, African drums and Korean activities were shown off throughout the afternoon.

It was a colourful celebration to recognize the vital role of members in the community.

“We want to celebrate regular women who work hard for their family, in their workplace, and that contribute a lot to the local economy,” Chen said.

“We want to be part of the movement.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We want to be part of the movement."

Prominent local women also stopped in to the event to praise the steps taken by the association to recognize those who deserve it.

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MLAs Rochelle Squires and Bernadette Smith and City Councillor Janice Lukes all celebrated with the community.

Squires, who is the Minister Responsible for Status of Women, said it was the fourth female-centered event she’d attended on Saturday.

“I really think we need to change International Women’s Day to International Women’s Week,” Squires said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I really think we need to change International Women's Day to International Women's Week," Squires said.

“We must continue to press on and work together advancing equality so that everybody in our community can realize their full destiny.”

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But Saturday, while hundreds came together to lift up women, most acknowledged the same thing.

“We’ve made several strides over the last century,” Squires said, “but we still have so much work to do.”