Why every day ? (30 Oct)

Walking with Purpose

Walk Day 30

By Rosalie Kingwill, Researcher and Blocktober walker 

"You can't understand someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes."

In front of the Blockhouse together

Rosalie asked Lala about walking to the Blockhouse every single day this Blocktober 2025.

Rosalie: Lala, you, Jean and Dixon have done Blocktober every day this October! Your commitment to walk every day struck me from the start to the end of the few Blocktober walks I shared with you and others. I wondered each time what it must take to walk every single day and what its meaning is. The rest of us just put up our emoji thumbs, get ourselves there and walk, albeit purposefully. You not only lead the walks whilst being attentive to new walkers, you also schedule them on several WhatsApp groups, organise, edit and post blogs each day, and manage a chunk of the fund raising and its purpose. This is a full time commitment, entirely voluntary. I gather you were helped on the technical and ideas side (credit due to Dawie and Janet) in setting up and operating the communication platforms, but you took on the daily responsibilities.

Could you help us understand what the significance of walking every day is, and why you do it?

Lala: I have always been a Blocktober participant but this year I put my hand up to walk every day to the Blockhouse. I see myself as the anchor, which must be in place at all times. Walking every day, at a predetermined time and route, creates the option for other people to participate according to what is possible for them. Walking to the Blockhouse is an act of solidarity with the survivors of gender-based violence and as survivors don’t get to take a day off, neither will I!

Rosalie: Could you expand on your insight that “survivors don’t get to take a day off” and how that informs your commitment to persevere no matter the weather.

Lala: If you have, or someone you love has, experienced gender-based violence, you will know that finding your path towards healing from its impact on you and those you love, is difficult and important. During your journey you don’t get to decide to take a day off, its stays with you. As you find your path its impact changes.

Rosalie: As I mentioned, the walking plus the other responsibilities must take up most of your day. How are you able to do this?

Lala: I am able this year to invest the time as I could postpone my immediate work commitments and my health is good.

Rosalie: And the daily blogs?

Lala: The daily blog is similar. By posting one every day, other writers can place their voices into this space of solidarity with the survivors of gender based violence. This is about collective action. The blogs have given me great joy.

Rosalie: Jean told me a similar story about undertaking daily activities as a means of identifying with survivors who cannot escape their trauma no matter what is going on externally. The daily tread, regardless of discomforts, is a modest way of stepping into the shoes of victims.

P.S. Jean cycled every day last year as he did years before. This year he could not cycle in the conventional sense while rehabbing from a terrible crash, but kept in the daily Blocktober regime by completing multiple hours on a stationary bicycle and in the pool at the Sports Science Institute of SA every day, forming new Blocktober bonds in the process. 

Key links

• Please donate today – to help make the target for Saartjie Baartman Centre's income generation programme for survivors of gender-based violence (you can set the tip at R0)
• Why not read the blogs you have missed?

Last walk in Cape Town Blocktober 2025

• Date: 31 October
• Time: 6am
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Duration: 2.5hrs, 7.5km
• Route: From the mountain end of Chelmsford Rd, Vredehoek, to the Kings Blockhouse - Starting point Pin  📍