frica faces giant and complex problems like mass poverty and unemployment. The AIDS pandemic adds to these and retards economic growth. In 2007 there were an estimated 33.2 million people with HIV/AIDS worldwide. Over three-quarters of the resultant deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. In the last 25 years Africa is the only continent where conditions have got worse and its people have become poorer. It is the only continent where 90% of its products have the price determined by the buyer. Former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, said: "Like Europe after a series of devastating wars, the aim should be to build a continent characterised by peace, cooperation, economic progress and rule of law. To bring this about Africa needs inspired leadership and courage." On top of this South Africa has to reverse the legacy of the Apartheid educational system.
Various leadership training programmes developed and run by African Enterprise (AE) sit under the ALDI umbrella. AE seeks to serve South Africa through the church, business community, politicians, and educational institutions at all levels. ALDI aims to build up godly leadership. Thembisa currently supports:
The Vision is to see an exponential growth in African leaders demonstrating integrity and ability. ASCENT, an accredited course, achieves this through a two-week-in-residence, four-month-in-the-workplace course. The aim is mentoring—to develop mentors who will develop others.
The objective is to train development facilitators for the vast numbers of impoverished communities in South Africa. They are given a broad base of skills and trained to mobilise people in their communities. Hundreds of community workers participate. They are trained how to set up their own businesses in areas like market gardening, furniture making, sewing projects, running a crèche, and to assume ownership of their own community problems, deal with them effectively and thus to restore dignity. The aim is for groups to initiate, take part in, and ultimately control their own development.
