March illustrates a woman’s walk remains challenging
EL CENTRO — With the sound of clapping shoes, men marched in red heels around Bucklin Park Friday evening during the annual Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event.
The Sure Helpline Center organized the event to promote awareness of domestic and sexual violence.
“You can’t understand another person’s experience until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes,” the event’s literature reads.
During the march, men struggled to walk on high heels and sent a message that is not easy to walk in a women’s shoes.
“Men will relate and understand what women go through,” said Gilbert Grijalva, program manager at Sure Helpline Center. “The difficulty of walking on these shoes will bring awareness to violence, offenses and rapes that occur, and how these men support women, that they want to see a stop to that.”
Around 60 men from government agencies, non-profits, and community members wore heels to bring light to this issue that impacts one in three women across the United States.
Bob Diaz, an Imperial resident, decided to celebrate his birthday marching. He remembered his upbringing with a forceful father and promised not to follow that path.
“We need to start young not allowing that type of behavior,” Diaz said.
While wearing the heels, Diaz stumbled and explained how difficult is to wear them.
“I have so much more respect for women,” he said. “The shoes are a metaphor for understanding what women go through. This is just a small symbol to support women, and bad behavior is never acceptable.”
Sure Helpline’s 24hour crisis center can be reached at (760) 3527878. The center’s rape crisis line is (760) 3527273.