Langley’s Ishtar Women’s Resource Society organized an International Women’s Day event highlight this year’s theme of Embrace Equity.

This year’s event included a panel discussion at the Timms Community Centre, with a diverse group of women talking about the ways they have experienced inequity and how to achieve true equality.

Coordinated by SFU psychology masters student Cherie Martens, who is working on a practicum with Ishtar’s Stop the Violence Program, the panel also featured Meredith Crough, Divyasri Chakraborty, Margaret Akulia, Becky Cameron, and Lennie Cameron.

It was important for Martens to bring together a diverse panel of speakers, she said.

The women came from within and outside of Ishtar.

Crough is the supervisor of Stop the Violence and Akulia is a support worker in one of Ishtar’s transition homes.

Chakraborty is working on her masters of counselling at TWU and is an international student from India, while Becky Cameron works for Sara for Women as a peer support worker.

Lennie Cameron was the youngest on the panel at age 16.

Equity is the concept that every individual has specific and unique needs that have to be met in order to achieve equality.

For example, just because anyone is allowed to use a staircase in a building doesn’t mean it’s equitable for people who use wheelchairs, walkers, or other mobility aids. Equity would mean giving everyone the ability to access the building via an elevator or ramp.

READ ALSO: More facilities for women in need as Ishtar gets a new office space

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Speakers at a recent International Women’s Day panel organized by Ishtar Women’s Resource Society included speakers Margaret Akulia (left), Divyasri Chakraborty, and Meredith Crough. (Matthew Claxton/Langley Advance Times)