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Community and Individual Development Association

managed by T. Blecher

About us

The Community Individual Development Association (C.I.D.A.) is a non-profit project-facilitation organization focused on the provision of mass-scale, low-cost, high-quality, effective and enlightened education for the historically disadvantaged, which directly brings youth from poverty to a position of self-sufficiency. With a 30-year track record for innovation, we are focused on cultivating the full potential of every student and developing ethical competent groups of future business and government leaders. The Community and Individual Development Association has worked directly with over 50,000 South Africans, and touched the lives of at least 700,000 South Africans, along with hundreds of individuals from around the country. Over 5,000 students have gone through the programs at our previous university CIDA City Campus, the ‘First Free University in South Africa’, and now we are in the process of scaling up our new initiative, The Maharishi Institute, from 250 students to 1,500 within the next two years.

Replication of our Self-Funding Education Model:

We aim to bring the ‘free” tertiary education model pioneered at CIDA to the next level, with the plan to replicate these tertiary education business schools throughout South Africa. We are currently creating the education replication demonstration site to showcase this model of the world’s ‘first self-sustaining self-funding university’, in downtown Johannesburg. We’ve had amazing support from strong South African and international partners that view this model as a key to bring about sustainable transformation in South Africa, and other African countries. Supporters include: the Oppenheimer Family, Anglo American, Datatec, Chuma Foundation, Kellogg Foundation, Skoll Foundation amongst others.

Contact

9 Ntemi Piliso Street
2000
Johannesburg
South Africa

T. Blecher

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