Shoreham celebrates International Women’s day with ‘empowering’ event

The Shoreham Centre hosted the event, organised by Shoreham Wordfest, Sussex International Women’s Day group and the Shoreham Community Trust.

It brought together women through a panel discussion, inspirational talks, mural painting and other fun activities such as Yoga Laughter and comedy.

County councillor for Shoreham north Debbie Kennard, who compèred the evening, said: “I have always been a community person and loved these events, but this one is special – it is about empowering women.

“International Women’s Day is a chance for us say ‘Hey sisters, we’re here’!”

The mural at the event was designed by Sonjiart to represent inter-generational stories of women and girls, ‘bringing friendship, energy and history together’.

Sonji Figueroa said: “I am a muralist, which is a male-dominated field , which is why I love doing things like this, to show women, young and old, that they can do it too.”

Cleo Matthews, from Wordfest, said: “The panel tonight is here to reflect on how women feel. We are two decades into the 21st century and we want to find what has changed.

“We want to explore how we as women can work together to make changes still needed.”

The panel discussion featured Joss Loader, Joma Longmore, Bianca Donnelly, Jelita Purches, Madhu Malhotra, Farah Edwards and Kirstie Thomas

The discussion, chaired by Lavinia O’Connor, was one of the most anticipated parts of the night and covered exploring experiences and expressions to all who identify as being female in the 21st century, looking at modern-day challenges for women’s equality and developing inter-generational links.

Lavinia felt it was important to support the event. She said: “International Women’s Day is definitely the most important event for women all over the world.

“As a feminist from the late 60s and early 70s I’m really interested in what today’s generation feel and whether we are going forwards or backwards and what changes still need to be made.”

Michele Pape, events co-ordinator for the Shoreham Centre, said: “This was a fantastic evening for all women and it’s great to be a part of bringing them together with a variety of entertainment.”

Organisers from the event felt comments from many of the speakers ‘resonated’ with their own feelings and said the evening went ‘brilliantly’.

Cleo said: “In the future we are hoping to plan a project based around the theme of inter-generational links – so that is exciting.”