Senate President Sends Powerful Message to Girls: ‘You Do Not Stand Alone’

As the upcoming gender-based violence (GBV) awareness and advocacy walk on International Women’s Day approaches, President of the Senate, Senator Alincia Williams-Grant, has said that she believes the walk is providing an opportunity for young women to see “that they do not stand alone in the fight to address inequalities, biases, barriers and challenges”, and further, that “collective voices in unison” can produce “the shifts we want to see around and in us”.

The Senate President leads a mentorship group for young women – The President’s 10 – whose members will participate in the March 8th GBV awareness walk, Men & Women United 2025: Stop Gender Based Violence.

“Our participation allows our young ladies to tangibly demonstrate they recognize they have a civic responsibility and that they value the role, the importance, the safety and the well-being of women in our communities,” she stated.

The organizer, the Integrated Health Outreach Gender Based Violence Coalition (IHO-GBV), has said that the event aims to mobilize all of society to advocate against gender-based violence with a focus on women’s and girls’ safety and human rights.

The IHO-GBV Coalition has said that it aims to bring 2000 people out to the awareness building event. Registration is free. Participants are also given a free t-shirt.

Anyone can register for the walk here: https://qrco.de/bfg85S

Senator Williams-Grant explained that the President’s 10 aims to create awareness in young women, foster their education, and empower them to “engage in a transformational way, particularly at the political level”.

Alongside groups like the President’s 10, various youth and service organizations such as the Girl Guides, the National Youth Volunteer Corps (NYVC) and JCI are also registering their members for the walk.

The IHO-GBV Coalition is an arm of the nonprofit organization Integrated Health Outreach (IHO). IHO Communications Officer Kieron Murdoch is encouraging other groups that also focus on youth empowerment to get members registered.

“Institutions and groups have an amazing opportunity to lead the change that we all want to see in our society. You already have the structure and the audience. You only have to choose to leverage that to deliver the message. Leadership can come from individuals but at times, it comes from groups taking collective action,” he stated

The IHO-GBV Coalition reports that over 1000 people are now registered for the event, which is happening on Saturday, March 8th, 2025, starting at 2:00 pm in the Botanical Gardens.

They, in conjunction with their partner on the event, the Directorate of Gender Affairs (DoGA) are aiming for 2000 participants and are on a final drive to register as many residents as possible.

The Men & Women United 2025: Stop Gender Based Violence Walk is a project implemented by IHO in partnership with DoGA and supported by the Equality Fund and Global Affairs Canada. Anyone can register for the walk here: https://qrco.de/bfg85S.