Hello from drought ravaged, power-challenged Tanzania.

Yes, East Africa is facing a severe drought; people and animals are starving to death by the thousands every week; the rivers and dams are so low the national hydroelectric power stations have to shut down the power supply regularly; fresh food supplies, such as rice, corn, fruit and vegetables, are becoming more expensive and threatening to become scarce if we don’t get a good wet season this year.

But it’s not all bad news and what we lack in water and electrical power, we at St Jude’s (with your help!) more than make up for in “the power to win against all odds”.

About a month ago I sent out a newsflash email to everyone announcing our first Standard 4 results from the exam held in December last year. This exam is the first official Tanzanian government exam for which children have to sit. If a child fails this, he or she could be refused a chance to repeat as the government schools are so over crowded. This means a child’s education stops at the age of nine.  For this reason the child labour force in Tanzania is on the rise and so is poverty.

In December last year 27 children from St Jude’s sat the exam and passed with amazing results. In December this year, and every year from now on, we will have around 130 children sitting the same exam and then the Tanzanian government Standard 7 exam is the next hurdle.

Just incase you missed the news of our results (and it’s so exciting it bares repeating!) here are the details again.

The 2005 results are:

• Out of 204 schools in the district, our school ranked 3rd with an average total mark of 90.8%! 
  
• Out of 17,581 students who sat the exam, 5 of our Standard 4 students were placed in the top 10 of their gender group. The names of these students (so their sponsors know) are Esuvat Ojungu(1st!!), Alex Elifas (5th), Cecilia Benedict (8th) and Eliudi William/Athumani Hamedi (9th). Actually, Esuvat topped the whole lot so we are particularly proud of her! 
  
• 19 of the 27 students got 100% in at least one subject.
  
• Even the last in the class was ranked in the top 20% of the whole area.

Below is a picture of the 5 students mentioned above with the Standard 4 homeroom teacher and Academic Deputy of our school, Mr Nestory Msoffe.

We are so proud of our students for their great effort but it must be acknowledged that they wouldn’t have been able to achieve this without the support of their dedicated teachers who stayed back every afternoon and also on Saturdays to give extra tuition, the bus drivers who stayed back to see that they got home safely in the evenings and the cooks, cleaners, administration staff and all the school’s donors and sponsors who have enabled us to give these children a chance in life that they wouldn’t have had if St Jude’s didn’t exist. Our first 27 are through the first hurdle. Their next challenge is the government exam in Standard 7. We are aiming for as good or better results with this class and every following class. The future looks really positive!

Below is a group photo of all the staff involved with the school. Around 150 people currently work hard on the ground here and with the support of all of you around the world this great project is flourishing!

Good bye and good luck, Alex!
We say a sad goodbye to volunteer Alex Pagliaro who has been at the school for more than a year. Alex was a huge help to everyone at the school and staff and student alike are really going to miss her. Need new textbooks ordered? Ask Alex. Who is going to buy next week’s fresh vegies for the school? Ask Alex. Who would be interested in one of the worst jobs - doing the new timetable? Ask Alex. Alex returned to University in Adelaide to do a degree in International Studies, promising to return when it’s completed. We’re holding you to that, Alex!

The ‘eyes’ have it!
Last year I had the opportunity to stay with Tom and Linda Sheriff from Wichita Falls in Texas, USA. Tom is an optometrist and both he and Linda taught me how to check the eyesight of our students. I arrived back in Africa armed with a chart and clear instructions.
So this year we have been slowly going through ALL the children and making sure they have good eyesight. We have quite a number of students who have benefited from Tom and Linda’s care and concern and below are some of them with Nurse Emma. It has made such a difference to the children’s schoolwork, class participation, homework and their general confidence. There is no ‘four eyes’ stigma here and not many would have read Dorothy Parker!

Weather or not … we learnt something!
As ‘Climate’ is a topic in Standard 4 and 5, a school excursion to the weather station at Mt Kilimanjaro International Airport was organised for 150 students and their teachers. They returned with their heads spinning with details of clouds, air currents and satellites … and that you should not forget to take some water to drink when travelling for a few hours!!

What a Team!!
All the newly sponsored children in the school now have their uniforms and their sponsors have all the details of their sponsored child in a comprehensive file which includes lots of photographs and family details.
MASSIVE congratulations from ALL of us go to Karin, who came to us from Germany for a few months but, luckily for us, has been convinced to stay on for a year to work with calm and cheerful efficiency on this huge task. She doesn’t know it but we’ve burnt her passport!       She is ably assisted by Leslie, who hails from the USA. Leslie has combined her great compassion, organisational skills and computer expertise to assist Karin and ALSO run the website payments – an enormous responsibility and one that takes acres of patience and persistence to fathom the workings of the system.       And our Aussie Anne returned this year to complete the Sponsorship team. Anne happily scans in the pictures of the kids and works diligently on all the files to keep them up to date.       They have done a wonderful job and I can’t thank them enough for all their hard work. Well done, girls!       Karin is pictured below with five new boys and girls who have successfully completed their probation period… yes, it is a shame that their wonderfully individual fashion styles have to be neutralised for school!

And then they proudly become the owners of a St Jude’s hat – a real badge of honour in Arusha!

Progress on all fronts!
I reported in the last newsletter that the year got off to a flying start and I’m pleased to say that we’re progressing in the same vein.
The new classrooms, which opened this year, are humming with activity from morning to twilight as the staff and students preparing for this year’s Standard 4 exam work to well after the 3.30pm bell when the rest of the teachers and pupils jump on their busses for home. December may be 10 months away but for most of these children we have a lot of ground to cover. Many have come from schools with no facilities or any inclination to teach - continual failure can wear you down.

New play equipment has been erected to cope with the demand for playing space with the extra 200 children this year. There are always willing volunteers ready to grab a paint pot and brush to add their creative touch to the playground.        John Croft (pictured below in the hat) and his wife, Janet (who never stood still long enough for us to get a photo of her!), are two visitors who came over from my home town of Guyra. Janet's teaching experience was put to good use as she gave special training sessions to the Tanzanian teachers, inspiring them with her passion for and knowledge of teaching. And there was never a moment that John didn't have a paint brush, saw or hammer in his hands as he threw himself into creative project for the students. They were an enthusiastic couple whose company we enjoyed and imput we really appreciated.

Teachers are enjoying the extra space afforded them in the new staffroom where they can prepare and organise their work.

And the ever-present building team continues non-stop on the accommodation block for staff and visitors on the prime site looking across to the foothills of Mt Meru … which would be visible if it weren’t so cloudy!

With uncles who are master builders it’s hardly surprising that Nathaniel and Jacob, my two ‘foremen’ sons, are obsessed with building equipment! Their favourite days are those when a huge cement slab is being laid as the cement mixer churns non-stop. I’m not quite sure if I’ve captured a moment of  “Careful Jacob, don’t go too close!” or “Hmmm … I’ll get two chops tonight if I just nudge him forward a little….”

My visit to Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Last week I had a very quick trip to Boston to present two papers at the NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools) Conference. The President of the Association, Mr Patrick Bassett, had invited me to share my experience of building a school in the developing world and explain what life is like for school children without the advantages we take for granted in the west.
It was quite overwhelming for me to be in the company of such highly esteemed headmasters, headmistresses and school leaders from all over the United States and abroad and has given me so much to aspire to. I had a wonderful time meeting amazing people, attending inspiring lectures and doing some really positive networking.
  Patrick  (pictured with me below) sponsors one of our newly enrolled students, Macmillan Chuwa, so as well as helping Macmillan, Patrick has given me a great opportunity to learn lots, broaden my horizons and spread the word about our little school here in the bush … actually, I don’t think I can call it a little school any more!

And a really, really special big Thank You must go to Cindy Smith and her family whose support made it possible for me to attend the conference. Every detail was efficiently handled with the precision of a battalion commander! Before I left Arusha she had me completely organised down to the design of my business cards and while I was there she even rang me last thing at night to remind me to power up my laptop! Wish I could entice her to Arusha!
It is really thanks to people such as the Smith family (Cindy on my right and Mrs Smith on my left, below) that we now are really starting to make a major impact on the education standards of the children in this area in Tanzania.

Another amazing woman, Ruth Knoll, whose company Cindy and I enjoyed while in Boston, is a fellow school founder from the United States. Her school, however, is a little different from ours as she educates children with extremely high IQs. Who knows, we may find St Jude’s has some of those also – I wouldn’t be surprised after noticing how some of our students are progressing!   Ruth (pictured below) has been a great source of ideas, wisdom, and inspiration and has become a great friend.

We love visitors!
It is great that we have a constant stream of visiting sponsors and donors to the school, as it is always wonderful to meet people that we know so well through emails, phone calls or the database. To be able to put a face and personality to the familiar names who are all part of our big St Jude’s family is always a delight.
The special treat is to witness their first meeting with their sponsored child or see them climb aboard their sponsored bus or sit in on a class of their sponsored teacher or join in a class in their sponsored classroom. It really is one of the highlights of running a school such as this.
This month it was great to welcome Paul Weinland from New Jersey, USA, who has helped the school a great deal. Hundreds of new library books are now being enjoyed by the children, wonderful state-of-the-art teaching aids are available to the staff and the office is running much more efficiently with all the functional and modern equipment that Paul has provided for us.
He was such a delight to have on campus as he coped cheerfully with the lack of water and intermittent power supply and tucked into the school lunches of rice and beans as if we’d served him chateaubriand! After all that he really deserves to be the person who now holds the records for seeing the most kills on safari – five kills in 10 days! Such a record couldn’t go to a nicer person! We look forward to your next visit, Paul. Below is a photo of Paul with the two teachers and two students he sponsors - Mr Nestory (the Academic Headmaster), Ms Diana (Head of Kiswahili Department), Benson Besti and Pendo Yohana from Standard 2.

Graeme Guilford, a Rotarian from New Zealand, dropped into the school for a couple of days with a friend to say hi and we were really happy to say hi back as Graeme had lugged over 50kgs of stationary for us! It was perfect timing as our stationary supplies were depleted since the start of the school year.
Budgeting a few pencils and pens for over 700 students and 60 staff is no mean feat so, thanks to Graeme, all of our teachers now have a great supply of red, blue and black pens and our administration staff can now staple easily with the high quality staplers he gave us. Thanks Graeme!!

Other visitors who we were excited to meet were the Watermans from Gloucester, England. Colin and Linda have been helping and supporting the school for a long time now and it was wonderful to be able to have them stay with us for two weeks. During their stay they were able to get to know their sponsored children Weema Obedi and Godfrey Elias, both in Standard 4, and their families.

Alan Barkley is another of our welcome visitors who dropped in for a flying visit. Alan represents Opportunity Education, a great organisation based in the United States, that is planning to help raise education standards in Africa by supplying worthy schools with equipment and teaching programs.
Alan made time in his punishing schedule to drop off a television set and DVD player so our children and staff can start enjoying this great curriculum supporting software. We are looking forward to starting the program after this midterm break. It was great to see him and we hope his next visit won't be so fleeting!

Website reworkings
Behind the scenes and working like soldier ants the Australian website team of our good mate Richard Pagliaro and web wizard, Roumen Staykov, is … well, I’m not sure what they do or how they do it but they have those sorts of brains that defy my ability to comprehend! I gather they are redesigning, making it more user friendly, bring in the latest and safest methods of paying donations and sponsorship fees over the Internet and (in conjunction with our volunteer computer ‘geek’ Bob Treitman and the team here) up loading the new details for the programs for visitors and volunteers.

Visitors – Sponsors and Donors
In the last month our Volunteer Program has been radically altered. For sponsors and donors this is not applicable as they are welcome at any time but we do ask them to book well in advance as we have so many people coming and going and large groups booked in at certain times of the year and we would hate to have to pitch them a tent in the middle of winter!

Visitor Program – maximum 2 weeks
We no longer have short term volunteer placements as we have been inundated with offers of help and although we really appreciate everyone's willingness to assist, we don't have the space and infrastructure to cope with the continual coming and going of so many people. It has been a decision that we have not taken lightly and realise that a lot of people will be disappointed by the change to the program.
However, this does not mean you can’t come over to visit. To ensure that everyone has an enjoyable stay we are outlining various time slots during the year that fit in with our term times and avoid weeks that have been booked by large groups. This way, visitors will be assured of a well-organised holiday with many memorable experiences.
The exact dates when the school will be open to visitors in 2006 are: 13-27 April, 13-27 May, 14-28 October, 4-18 November. Dates for 2007 will be available towards the end of 2006.

Volunteer Program – minimum 1 year
The details are:

1. We are looking for highly qualified and experienced primary school teachers, with English as a first language, to teach primary school children from Standard1 (5-7 years of age) to Standard 2 (8-10 years of age) for at least a year.
2. For more mature teachers with many years experience we can be more flexible. We would be interested in people who are prepared to impart their knowledge and experience thereby providing more of a mentoring role to the younger and less experienced Tanzanian teachers.
3. From time to time we may also require experienced administrative staff to work in the office. These people will require good computer skills, possible marketing and promotion experience, accounting ability or general office experience. We would prefer to have people who are available for at least a year. Starting date is flexible.

Anyone wishing to consider this option should check out the school website under ‘Visiting the School of St Jude'. If further info is required they may write to office@schoolofstjude.co.tz and an application form and further details will be forwarded.

Well, I’m heading to Aus in a few days and looking forward to catching up with many of you. It is a bit of a frantic dash about the country but hopefully I’ll catch up with old friends, meet some new ones and indulge in a decent Aussie steak … or three!

Thanks, Team, for all your kind and generous support, good wishes, and the ideas, advice, wisdom, experiences and knowledge that so many of you pass on with such warmth, compassion and genuine care. 

Best wishes,
Gemma