Clinical psychologist Janine Barnes united 150 Craighall Park locals on September 26 at Delta Cafe for a 5km walk following the recent discovery of women’s bodies in Ekurhuleni.

Barnes has always felt strongly about social injustice, and has indirectly advocated against gender-based violence in the past, through theatre and academia. “I obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in drama and a performer’s diploma in speech and drama at UCT in 1999. In the 1990s, I remember being alarmed at how high the gender-based violence statistics were in South Africa.”

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In 2000, she produced and performed in a one-woman show about gender-based violence at Cape Town’s Artscape Theatre. “I produced and performed in the same show in London in 2002,” she said.

“I’m now a clinical psychologist. My clinical psychology Master’s Degree research report was entitled: Male University Students’ Constructions of Date Rape in Individual and Focus Group Settings.”

The aim of the study was to examine the perspectives of South African students on gender-based violence with a focus on the standpoint of male students to date rape on university campuses. Barnes has experienced sexual harassment on numerous occasions and was physically assaulted in 2013.

“When I heard about the murders of women in and around Ekurhuleni, I wanted to participate in the initiatives that were being organised: the convoy drive from Olifantsfontein Police Station to Kempton Park Police Station and the walk through Emmarentia Botanical Gardens,” she said.

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“I couldn’t attend either of these events because of my working hours, so I decided to organise the Parks Against GBV walk.”

The clinical psychologist was thrilled with the 150 locals who turned out in support of the walk. “I hope that people were reminded that we can stand up against gender-based violence by coming together for initiatives like this.”

Barnes said such initiatives create solidarity, visibility and awareness, and hopes people felt encouraged and uplifted by it.

“The message was that we were walking for the women who have been murdered in and around Ekurhuleni,” she said, “but also that we were walking for all the women who have been killed or injured in the epidemic of gender-based violence that has spanned decades.”

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