Al-Qalam 
By Azra Hoosen
The Southern Africa Leadership Academy (SALA) continues to guide and inspire community leaders and activists, to improve their skills and performance at work and in the field through their annual capacity building workshop, that took place this month in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.
SALA – formerly known as HRDP – held a week-long leadership course at the M.A Motala Islamic Centre in Wyebank, Durban, which was attended by 47 trainees made up of full time Duat, Madressa teachers and NGO volunteers, from Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Swaziland, South Africa and Zambia.
Every year SALA brings together various individuals from the SADC region to develop their skills in administration, management and leadership through a two-year Leadership Training Programme (LTP). This year they welcomed 37 new participants, who successfully completed their first year of the programme, while others completed their two-year programme at the 2022 workshop.
The Leadership Training Programme (LTP) has a skills curriculum, carefully designed to assist people with the everyday running of their organisations or committees. For the first-year participants, the facilitators taught modules that focused on public speaking, zakat administration procedures, writing business fund raising proposals as well as First Aid and CPR life saving techniques. The second-year delegates were introduced to four new modules that comprised of Budgeting techniques for NGOs, managing money, practical guidance to report writing and how to introduce a Madrassa syllabus at micro and macro levels incorporating some teaching skills.
“There was an unusually high level of ukhuwwat and teamwork that we have not seen for quite a few years,” expressed Rashid Chopdat, facilitator of the SALA training programme.
“The closing ceremony was a very moving affair for many of the participants when they received their certificate and went on to compliment the SALA Leadership Training Programme. All participants expressed a deep appreciation for the quality of the content and for the inspiring lecturers. Some of the speakers referred to their training as game changers in their lives,” said Chopdat.
The Southern Africa Leadership Academy (SALA) is an alliance of various Muslim NGO’s – As-Salaam Educational Institute, Muslim Youth Movement, Mancosa, Ladysmith Dawah Centre, Inchanga Islamic Centre, Islamic Propagation Centre (IPCI), Southern Africa Dawah Network (SADN), Islamic Dawah Movement of SA (IDM), SANZAF, AWQAF SA and Dawah Academy.
Sheikh Adam Macheso, Head of SALA, explained that they engaged with a very motivated group of participants who were so eager to learn and grow in their fields, which made this year’s workshop very special. SALA looks forward to providing many more beneficial and successful capacity building programmes in the future.
