‘Know their names’: Cape Town to host shroud walk for Palestinian children

A 20-metre shroud bearing the names of Palestinian children killed in Gaza will be carried through central Cape Town on 7 October, turning a vast and difficult-to-grasp death toll into a procession of individual names, Cape {town} Etc reports.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) South Africa says the Know Their Names event is intended as an act of remembrance and witness, with the organisers saying 22 434 children are represented in the names written onto the cloth.

The campaign has been taking shape across Cape Town in recent weeks, with members of the public writing children’s names onto the shroud at different venues. The initiative has already drawn participation from community members and faith spaces, including **Claremont **Main Road Mosque and Central Methodist Church in Greenmarket Square.

The idea comes from the Children’s Shroud movement that began reportedly in Italy and has since spread internationally. The original Italian shroud was created to put individual names and identities at the centre of public remembrance, rather than allowing the scale of the deaths to become an abstract figure.

For organisers, the physical size of the shroud is part of the message. The PSC says the figure of 22 434 children killed is so large that it can become difficult to comprehend what each individual death represents: ‘Not a number. Not a statistic. A name. A child. A life.’

The international Children’s Shroud project similarly describes the writing of names as an attempt to give a human dimension to an enormous death toll. Its organisers say the Italian initiative began with a shroud carrying thousands of names and has travelled through more than 40 locations in Italy since it was first displayed in October 2025.

The project has since developed into a wider international movement, with a separate Gaza Children’s Shroud initiative involving volunteers from different faiths and backgrounds writing children’s names by hand.

A Cape Town journey through the CBD

The Cape Town procession will begin with a silent demonstration outside the Holocaust Museum at 10:00 on 7 October. At 11:00, participants will carry the shroud through the CBD before ending at St George’s Cathedral, where organisers have planned a one-hour vigil from noon.

The published route will take participants from Hatfield Street to St John’s Street, past St Mary’s Cathedral and through Plein Street and Spin Street. From there, the procession will pass the Groote Kerk, cross Adderley Street and continue through Church Street and Greenmarket Square before making its way towards Wale Street and St George’s Cathedral.

The choice of central Cape Town places the memorial within a part of the city that has long been associated with public gatherings, religious communities and political protest.

Cape Town has also seen repeated pro-Palestinian demonstrations since the outbreak of the current genocide. Reportedly, Thousands joined a PSC-organised march through the city in October 2024, while previous demonstrations have taken place in areas including District Six and the CBD.

“Not a number, but a name.”

An interfaith coalition unveiled a 100-metre (328-foot) memorial shroud in New York at the UN Church Center, bearing the handwritten names of over 20,000 Palestinian children killed in Gaza since the start of Israeli military aggression.

The Gaza… pic.twitter.com/dYjttCmHeR

— Justice For All (@JFAorg) September 17, 2026

The procession is the next stage of a project that has been unfolding locally rather than a one-day event.

According to reporting on the Cape Town initiative, community members began writing names on the cloth during the weekend of 19 and 20 September. By late September, organisers said about 10 778 names had been recorded, covering children up to the age of nine.

That process has given people a physical role in the memorial. Instead of simply reading a number or seeing a statistic on a screen, participants have been asked to sit down and write a child’s name by hand.

This approach reflects the origins of the wider movement in Italy, where organisers described people of different ages taking part in writing names, with the process becoming an emotional experience for parents, teachers and young people. The Cape Town organisers say the shroud is ultimately about refusing to let individual lives disappear behind the scale of the genocide.

‘We wrote their names. Name by name. Child by child.’

– The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) South Africa

What happens on 7 October

The planned Cape Town programme is:

• 10:00:

  Silent demonstration outside the Holocaust Museum

• 11:00:

  Shroud Walk through the Cape Town CBD

• 12:00:

  Vigil at St George’s Cathedral

• Vigil:

  One hour

The route will pass several historic religious sites and public spaces before reaching St George’s Cathedral. The event is being presented by organisers as a memorial and act of witness, while the broader Children’s Shroud movement describes itself as an international campaign centred on remembrance, human dignity and solidarity with Palestinian families.

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