The Chatham-Kent Sexual Assault Crisis Centre is celebrating International Women's Day by honouring women forgotten throughout history.
Director Michelle Schryer says there are many women who accomplished great things and paved the way for future generations, including Warsaw, Poland nurse and social worker Irena Sendler.
Schryer says Sendler touches her heart because she saved 2,500 Jewish children during the Second World War by passing them off as Christians.
"She recorded their information, their identities and put all of that information into jars that she hid in her neighbour's yard and after the war survivors were reunited with families in many cases," Schryer says.
March 8 was declared International Women's Day in 1977 but the idea has been around since 1910.
Schryer says Second World War Soviet ace pilot Lylia Litvyak was special but got shot down and killed just before her 22nd birthday.
"She was in the air all the time and had the most kills of pilots at that time," she says.
Schryer says it wouldn't be women's day without paying tribute to her friend Gwen Robinson, a founding member of the Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society.
"Gwen has given 40 years of her life to uncovering and preserving black history in our community, which is so rich with black history," says Schryer.