IRC in Spokane changes International Women’s Day event as refugee women fear public gatherings

By Cassy Benefield | FāVS News Associate Editor

The International Rescue Committee in Spokane won’t be celebrating refugee and immigrant women and their achievements like they have in the past in honor of March’s International Women’s Day. 

“This year, many refugee women in our community do not feel safe gathering to celebrate in such a visible way,” said Kimberly Curry, IRC in Spokane’s community engagement manager.

Instead of having them gather at one location, they are inviting the public to their big event — an “International Women’s Day Brunch” on Friday, from 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m., at Spokane Central Library’s third floor nxʷyxʷyetkʷ Hall.

For their clientele, they will host a series of smaller private events where 20-30 refugee and immigrant women will be honored at a time throughout March.

“I just finished up our first pop-up event, and it was a huge success,” Curry said in an email about the first one they held on March 6, which honored 30 women. “They stayed long after it was over” connecting “with one another continuing beyond the event.”

Like the events in the past, during these smaller pop-ups, the women will participate in activities that include jewelry making, cake decorating and painting. Each woman will also be pampered with a bag “full of free makeup and tasty treats,” said Curry.

The larger, more public gathering invites the community to learn how to support these women, to learn more of their successes and challenges and to ask questions. 

An invitation to the community

“We hope to bring together community members who care deeply about our neighbors and want to understand how they can help,” said Margaret Hinson, IRC in Spokane’s site director. “The more people who show up with open hearts and a willingness to listen, the more powerful the event will be.”

Advance registration is encouraged online through March 11, but walk-ins will still be welcome. All donations given that day will go toward strengthening programs that help their female clientele.

Because the current climate has created real fear for many of the women the IRC in Spokane serves, Hinson said, mental health support is in high demand and a pressing need for their clients.

“Anti-immigrant rhetoric has intensified, and there has been a significant increase in immigration enforcement — with deep concern that it is being applied indiscriminately, regardless of people’s legal status,” she said. 

National statistics substantiate their fears.

When Trump took office in January 2025, there were approximately 40,000 people in detention. A year later, the number rose over 75% to about 73,000 people, the highest in American history.  

Of those held in detention about 73% had no criminal conviction.

At the event, attendees will learn how their donations and support to organizations like the IRC in Spokane not only assist with legal services, but these will also help support their mental health, “which are in especially urgent demand right now,” Hinson said.

Wasan Hassan, IRC in Spokane’s immigration legal representative and an former refugee from Iraq who resettled in the U.S. in 2010, can vouch for fears spread among her clients, one of whom she is especially proud of.

‘She’s learning so many new things’

“She has a job, she takes care of five children and she is on her own,” Hassan said. 

“In the Middle East or even third world countries, [a woman] is considered part of the house,” Hassan said, explaining that women’s roles include taking care of the house, children and cooking. 

When these women arrive in Spokane as refugees, they are married or single, and have the additional responsibility to learn how to drive, to speak English and to find work, and to do so quickly, Hassan said.

“She’s learning so many new things … not as a teenager when they’ve learned it gradually. No, she’s learning it as an adult with a huge responsibility,” she said.

And while they may have succeeded in learning these skills, and their status in the country is legally secure, fear remains and leads them to isolate themselves, said Hassan. She compared it to the isolation and anxiety they felt at the height of the COVID pandemic.

While donations, support and knowledge are great ways to help the IRC in Spokane, the reality is offering compassion is at the heart of what anyone can do to show their concern, Hinson said.

“Show up — to events like this one, to advocacy opportunities and simply as a neighbor. And perhaps most importantly, extend kindness,” Hinson said. “A sense of belonging and safety starts with how we treat one another.”

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