Rutgers School of Business - Camden The "Good Works" Initiative

The "Good Works" Initiative

The Relationship between the School of Business-Camden
and Kalksteenfontein Primary School

Students and faculty at Rutgers University-Camden have been traveling to South Africa since 1995, as part of the School of Business International Business Study Abroad Program. Upon return, Professor Julie Ruth read an article in the New York Times describing a district visited during the 2003 Rutgers trip. Crushed and heartbroken to read of an innocent girl’s death in the area due to gang violence, and that many children do not attend school because of an inability to pay the annual school fee (about U.S. $15), Professor Ruth took action.

She set out to find the primary school principal quoted in the New York Times article, Jeffrey Arendse, who lost his young student, Desmone Smith, to gang violence. After making contact, Julie and Jeffrey began a dialogue about the needs of Kalksteenfontein Primary School (KPS) in Kalksteenfontein, Cape Town, South Africa. KPS serves 400 student “learners” in grades K – 7. The community is very much affected by the legacies of apartheid: Kalksteenfontein community is very poor, with high adult illiteracy and unemployment over 50%. About 60% of “learners” are being raised by non-birth parent caregivers such as grannies and aunties. Learners are to pay an annual school fee of approximately US$15. More than 50% of school fees go unpaid due to lack of employment and inability to pay.

The school’s budget is comprised of monies from Government, school fees, and any funds KPS teachers and administrators raise through cake sales and other events. KPS has few resources and dire needs. For example:

• Many children come to school because of the promise of lunch but Government provides funding only for Grades K–3. So older children go hungry while younger children are fed.

• Due to lack of funds to retain a second teacher, KPS had been faced with having one teacher for 90 first graders.


Kalksteenfontein community	Kalksteenfontein Primary School, behind security fence

To help to address the needs at KPS, School of Business faculty, staff, students, and other friends have been providing assistance to KPS since 2003.

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