In the wake of recent events, students at Crawford International Sandton College chose not to be bystanders. On Friday, 18 September, the school was dressed in black as students stood in solidarity and mourning with the nation in response to gender-based violence (GBV).
Purple ribbons were handed out at the school gates to encourage greater awareness, while a memorial table was placed in front of the Madiba Mural to honour the nine women whose bodies were found that week. The memorial sought to remember these women not simply by the circumstances of their deaths, but as people who had families, friends, hopes and dreams.
Students were encouraged to bring candles, letters and flowers to the memorial, with many coming together to honour the lives of the women. At the end of the school day, flowers were handed out in the parking area as a reminder that the lives of women matter and that students are taking a stand against violence.
Reflecting on the significance of the initiative, Crawford student Kimiya Ghaheri said: “We are the ones we have been waiting for. Seventy years after the events of 9 August 1956, the women of this country are still fighting and, as the youth, as Crawford students, we refuse to wait longer.”
Referencing June Jordan’s Poem for South African Women, written in commemoration of the 40 000 women who marched on the Union Buildings in 1956, Kimiya said the poem’s closing words, “we are the ones we have been waiting for”, remain relevant to the responsibility young South Africans carry today.
“This was an important event. Us as students, as the youth, are the future and we have to play an active role as people of this country,” she said.
The day closed with a message of remembrance and solidarity: may these women rest in peace, may their families find comfort and may justice be served.
