Students To Raise Relief Funds

A Kennedy School organization of Harvard African students has created a program to use the work of volunteers to send funds to needy Black South African children.

Composed of six undergraduate and graduate school students from the apartheid nation, the Harvard South African Student Alliance sent a mailing this week announcing the new program.

In exchange for five hours of community service work at Philips Brooks House between now and the end of the semester, the alliance will arrange for $50 to be sent by sponsors to feed pre-school Black children who are suffering from malnutrition.

Citing a Carnegie Foundation Report, K-School member Denny I. Kriseman said that more than 30,000 Black children die of malnutrition in South Africa every year and that half of all Black deaths occur under the age of five. One-third of all Black children under the age of 14 do not get enough food to eat.

The South African government does not subsidize Black children who suffer from malnutrition, but does provide funds for whites and "coloreds," he said. Each contribution of $50 will feed five children with milk and bread for six months, Kriseman estimated.

The alliance will also send funds to "establish a mobile educational resource center in Cape Town," said Kriseman.

The Trustees of the University of Capetown will administer the use of the funds and University of Cape Town students will run the program's operation, he said.

"I think it's a very positive contribution," said South African Law School student and alliance member llanaC. Hurwitz. "It serves a dual function: it serves both the Boston community and the South African Black community."

The alliance will ask corporations that do not conduct business in South Africa, Harvard faculty and anyone who might be interested to be sponsors, Kripeman said.

"Along with the divestment campaign, there should be an effort to assist Black South Africans to the extent that they are hurt by divestment or the system of apartheid," he said. "Not only divestment, but help."

The Southern African Solidarity Committee (SASC) has not discussed the program, said Damon A. Silvers '86. "However, from what I've personally seen so far, there seems to be nothing wrong with it," he said.

"It's a complicated issue to send money into South Africa, as Harvard has found out," Silvers said. "But I think that if you can find a way to do something like that, then it's great."

Kriseman said that the program "runs parallel to whatever political actions are taking place, including the shantytowns."

"The idea is that there is a constructive and positive way that is not going to prop up the status quo. We feel that this is a contribution to the problem," he said.