Community & Individual Development Association

The Community & Individual Development Association (CIDA or COMMUNITY) is a non-profit, educational development organisation that was founded in 1979 and is located in Johannesburg, South Africa.

CIDA was formed in 2000 to provide disadvantaged students with an almost cost-free, university education. The foundation describes itself as an organization that facilitates projects that provide large-scale, low-cost, education for the disadvantaged. The university was founded in part by funding from the Educating Africa foundation. After each project is established, it has the option to become independent or continue under the umbrella of CIDA . CIDA was considered by some to be the "poster child" for the Free Tertiary Education movement in South Africa. Its contributors include local companies as well as JP Morgan and Dell.

CIDA's projects include: Soweto Craft and Self-Development Centre (1979), Crossroads Self-Development Centre (1980), Sagewood School (1985), training for 10,000 teachers and students in Qwa Qwa (1985), Soweto Self-Learning Centre (1993), training for 200 Peace Corp workers (1994), training for 400 teachers in Kwazulu-Natal (1996), training for 9,000 teachers and students in Alexandra and establishment of the Community Individual Development Trust (2005). The Branson School of Entrepreneurship was established in 2006 and was named after its contributor Richard Branson. In 2007 Taddy Blecher, the CEO of CIDA, received a $1 million dollar award from the Skoll Foundation. In 2008 CIDA founded Innovation TOWN, Invincible South Africa and Consciousness-Based Education (CBE) South Africa and received the Ezemvelo nature reserve as a donation from the Oppenheimers family. The Invincible Outsourcing organisation was launched in 2009 and a year later the Replication Centre was founded along with the Ezemvelo Eco-campus, the $10 College Fund and the Thank You Foundation.

The CIDA City Campus was founded in 2000 with the goal of offering low-cost tertiary education. In 2003 it received a $1.3-dollar donation from Oprah Winfrey for a girls dormitory. Co-founder, Taddy Blecher "left Cida [sic] in 2007 to start another free educational body, the Maharishi Institute" after "Blecher's promotion of transcendental meditation [sic] upset some of Cida's [sic] donors." CIDA City Campus launched an educational program called, Mastery Academy of Construction, and began receiving financial support from the construction company Murray & Roberts, Barloworld and its Letsema Sizwe Trust in 2007.

...
Wikipedia