South Africa desperately needs a comprehensive approach to fight HIV/AIDS. Education is crucial to reach this goal and Internet and e-learning could offer huge opportunities to broaden and deepen the knowledge basis. But due to the huge societal and digital divide between rich and poor areas, e-learning is difficult to realize in the townships. Community health workers often act as mediators and coaches for people seeking medical and personal help. They could give good advice regarding hygiene, nutrition, protection of family members in case of HIV/AIDS and finding legal ways to earn one's living if they were trained to do so. Therefore they need to have a broader general knowledge. Since learning opportunities in the townships are scarce, a system for e-learning has to be created in order to overcome the lack of experience with computers or the Internet and to enable them to implement a network of expertise. The article describes how the best international resources on basic medical knowledge, HIV/AIDS as well as on basic economic and entrepreneurial skills were benchmarked to be integrated into an e-learning system. After tests with community health workers, researchers developed recommendations on building a self-sustaining system for learning, including a network of expertise and best practice sharing. The article explains the opportunities and challenges for community health workers, which could provide information for other parts of the world with similar preconditions of rural poverty.

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Die sozialen Probleme Südafrikas können nicht von der Politik alleine gemeistert werden. Das haben die großen intern internationalen Unternehmen in Südafrika längst erkannt und engagieren sich bei der Förderung von Schulen und Universitäten. Sie versorgen Schulen mit Mitteln und Ausstattung, um die nächste Generation mit dem auszustatten, was notwendig ist, um die großen gesellschaftlichen Herausforderungen dieses afrikanischen Landes zu bewältigen. Der Artikel basiert auf einem Projekt eines Team von der Hochschule Neu-Ulm, das sie in der Township von Khayelitsha in Kapstadt durchgeführt haben, und auf Interviews mit den verantwortlichen Unternehmensvertretern. Er erklärt wie BMW und T-Systems die Ausbildung von jungen Menschen unterstützen und ihnen ermöglicht, für ihre berufliche und persönliche Entwicklung zu lernen. Die Hürden, wie dabei zu überwinden sind, werden genauso aufgezeigt wie die Erfolge, die bereits erreicht wurden. The societal problems in South Africa cannot be mastered by politics alone. Foreign big companies are pace setters of progress in schools and universities. They provide schools with the skills and equipment to teach the next generation in what is necessary to overcome the huge societal and digital divide in the rainbow nation. The article is based on the research of a team from Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences in the township of Khayelitsha in Cape Town and on interviews with the responsible company representatives. It explains how BMW and T-Systems support the education of young people and enable them to learn for their professional and personal development. The hurdles which have to be overcome are shown as well as the achievements that have been accomplished. Keywords: „basic living skills“, t systems südafrika, cosat center for science and technology