A number of campaigns are underway at Wits in solidarity for Garissa University. Witsies will me marching and petitioning in remembrance of the lives lost on 2 April in Kenya.
Witsies are coming together in solidarity for Garissa through a series of campaign due in the next week.
The Wits Justice Project and Journalism Department have launched a petition to be signed by Wits staff and students.
Nooshin Erfani-Ghadimi of the Wits Justice Project told Wits Vuvuzela that the initiative began from a belief that Wits should express its support of the Garissa students.
“This campaign started from a conversation about how we as Witsies are making a statement or acknowledging this tragedy.”
The petition is available online for students and staff to sign on ipetitions.com
“As academics, we understand the vital need for universities and institutions of learning to provide protected space for intellectual pursuits,” Erfani-Ghadimi said.
Wits staff and students have also shown support for the victims of the Garissa attack in social media and statements.
“As a student organisation, we cannot stand by and idly watch as our peers are being murdered on the very campuses on which they are on to receive education and on which their safety should be guaranteed,” said the Wits Muslim Students Association in a statement.
“As an African organisation, we cannot let it go unnoticed that our innocent African brothers and sisters have had their lives taken from them.”
The university is planning on marching in solidarity of the Garissa students, in collaboration with the Wits SRC’s silent candle light vigil at 12:30pm on Monday.
The march will begin at the FNB building on West Campus and end at the Great Hall. Everyone is encouraged to dress in black.
