When you support St Jude’s, you aren’t just providing free education to the poorest and brightest students in Arusha. You’re supporting almost 300 talented, dedicated staff members committed to fighting poverty in their community. In our Staff Spotlight series you get the chance to meet these impressive members of the St Jude’s family.
Meet Sebastian – the young Aussie Rotaractor who has been busy building Interact and Rotaract clubs within St Jude’s. He even started our EarlyAct club – the very first in East Africa!
Known as ‘Seb’, he had his first taste of Rotary in primary school.
“I am from Canberra and when I was young I would go and watch the Rotary bicycle ride every year. I did not know much about Rotary other than that they were the bike ride organisers!”
It was on a visit to our school in 2009 that Seb learnt more about Rotary, and its influence around the world.
The connection between St Jude’s and Rotary is impossible to miss. The world famous Rotary wheel is painted at the front entrance of each of our campuses and the story of how Rotary helped us build St Jude’s is told every time we recite the school’s history.
Encouraged by family and the experience he had at St Jude’s, Seb joined Rotary’s youth organisation, Rotaract, in 2014.
“I joined (Rotaract) as I like the networking aspect of Rotary,” he said. “How you can meet a different group of people than your normal social circle.”
Two years later, 22-year-old Seb returned to St Jude’s to bring Rotary’s connection full circle.
He is now the Rotary Coordinator, building EarlyAct, Interact and Rotaract clubs within St Jude’s.
“It has certainly been a lot of work to get our school clubs off the ground,” Seb said. “However, it has been so rewarding. Many of the students have been so enthusiastic and shown commitment to their club from the start. The school staff have been very supportive and have helped run EarlyAct sessions on Monday afternoons.”
Rotary’s motto this year is ‘serving humanity’ and how it is the people that spark the life of an organisation.
“Noreen, in Grade 6, is now famous among the Rotary in Arusha,” Seb said. “She is only 11 or 12 years old, but she had the confidence to make a speech to the Rotarians of Mount Meru when our EarlyActers visited the club.
“The Rotarians’ feedback was very positive; they loved how she presented herself with maturity beyond her years and spoke with poise and flair. ‘Good evening everybody. It is so good to be with all you wonderful people. But let’s get to the point!’ Everybody laughed at her opening remarks!”
Noreen is a clear example of the importance of EarlyAct and Interact for our students. EarlyAct is aimed at primary school students, while Interact was set-up to interest high school students in Rotary. They present a fantastic opportunity for students to develop a community service mindset at a young age.
“The community projects that the students do in Rotary teach them so many skills,” Seb said. “They have to decide, lead and manage these projects and can use these skills in the future.”
Working at St Jude’s can be a very rewarding experience – just ask Seb! Various roles in the St Jude’s team are now open. See here if you’ve got what it takes to help educate the future of Tanzania!
Just as the hands of skilled Rotarians built our very first classrooms, the little hands of EarlyActers are now keeping busy with projects that continue to do our school proud.
Late last year EarlyAct students, from our entry-level Rotary-associated club designed for students aged between five and 13, busily made the most of our disposable waste by creating paper mache artworks as a gift towards our fellow Arusha Mt Meru Rotary club.
“I like art because I am creative!” Grade 6 student Noreen proudly explains, showing off her elephant sculpture. “It’s good to recycle paper instead of putting it into the rubbish bin.”
EarlyAct president Miriam, along with Noreen and fellow Grade 6 student Mariam took piles of discarded paper and busily cut, mashed and mixed it with glue. They molded, sculpted and fashioned the clumps into shapes and animals.
Mariam molded the paper mulch into the word ‘EarlyAct’ to make a sign for the group.
“After it is dry I will paint the letters blue and yellow as these are the Rotary colors,” she said. “Next we will try and make the Rotary wheel!”
St Jude’s staff member and Rotaractor Jacqui supports the EarlyAct members during their sessions, and said her passion for Rotary comes from her late father who was a Rotarian himself.
“This project will help us protect our environment by reducing waste,” Jacqui said. “I like seeing their passion and how they want to do everything themselves. This is a great group!”
The group’s environmentally-friendly artworks received the Rotary seal of approval when they presented their first piece, a sculpture of the Rotary emblem, to the Arusha Mt Meru Rotary club.
Keep an eye out on our blog and newsletter in the near future for more projects our EarlyActers are getting stuck into!
It was the grooviest fundraiser Arusha had ever seen.
Rotaractors shimmied, twisted and mashed-potatoed at their 60s-themed bash to raise money for a youth unemployment program, Vijana Poa (which translates to “Youth is Cool” in Swahili) which provides workshops in entrepreneurship, and secures internships and support (including small start-up loans) to set up small businesses.
The far-out fundraising approach paid off, and Rotaract raised Tsh518,000 (about AU$325) for the Vijana Poa project. It’s a feat the club are particularly proud of, as they decided to focus on the program after considering the challenges facing some of our student’s siblings.
The Vijana Poa program was started by Rotary in Tanzania and Uganda and focuses on supporting unemployed youth, as this is a major challenge facing both countries. Currently in Tanzania the unemployment rate is 54% and Uganda at 64% (Rotary Vijana Poa, 2015).
Our Rotaractors, made up of members from 18 to 30 years old, will work with 10 unemployed student’s siblings to help them start their own small business, or to earn an internship in a local business. They will start with a series of workshops in Swahili this month.
Our Rotaract club’s fundraising evening featured a silent auction, live music and karaoke, as everyone danced along to the inaugural performance of the St Jude’s Staff Band. Hilda (Marketing), Aziz (Accounts), Maggie (HR) and Francis (Photography) performed a circa 1960s set including ‘Twist and Shout,’ ‘Hit the Road Jack’ and ‘Lean On Me.’ Silent auction prizes, from Burundian coffee, soaps and tailored clothing, were donated.
Community Relations team member Tracey attended the event and said it was interesting to learn about the project and what her co-workers have been up to.
“It has been so great to see the work of busy young professionals, like Viv (Beyond St Jude’s and Rotaract treasurer) and Aziz, who already do so much for their community in their free time but can find the time and energy to give even more,” she said.
Once the Vijana Poa project is complete, the youth will be supported and encouraged by Rotaractors to get an internship, start a business or gain employment.
The future is bright for young Tanzanians and our Rotaractors!
The St Jude’s Rotary office was filled with the sounds of craftwork as Interactors got busy with their latest community project.
“We are making blackboard dusters to give to schools. I think I have made over five so far!” explains enthusiastic secondary student Eva.
As well as being a practical show of goodwill for a local school, who can then prioritise their limited budget on providing more books for their students, the blackboard dusters have another benefit. They are made out of recycled foam from old mattresses and help reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. The soft, spongey material is perfect for a new life as a duster!
Once a mini mountain of dusters had been made, our students hopped on a St Jude’s bus to give them to two neighboring schools in Arusha - Oldadai and Njiro Secondary Schools. The smile from Oldadai Secondary School headmaster Urio Godson shows they were well received!
Both schools are supported by our Community Service Year Interns (CSY) Interns. Many local government schools do not have enough teachers, and a student to teacher ratio that makes effective teaching difficult. It is not uncommon to see over 100 children in one classroom.
Daudi is one of last year’s St Jude graduates doing his Community Service Year at Njiro Secondary School, and Kelvin is at Oldadai Secondary School. Now that The School of St Jude has both intern teachers and a supply of blackboard dusters to help support our local community, we are sure our Rotarian students can build on this with their community project plans in the future.
Interact gives our students the confidence to present their ideas and the opportunity to get a project off the ground and out into the world. The blackboard duster project was the brainchild of Edgar from Form 3. Rotary Coordinator Seb was full of praise for the community-minded student.
“He is brilliant. Edgar constantly tries to develop more knowledge about Rotary and goes to the library to research in his free time,” he said. “The dusters were his idea. He came to me with the idea and I encouraged him to take it to the club President and board. He even taught the other Interactors how to make them.”
St Jude’s students love to help others, so show your support for their community enthusiasm by helping fund their projects. They learn skills for life and grow confidence!
There’s not a more exciting way to start the year at The School of St Jude than with Uniform Day.
The 50 Grade 1 students who made it through the our most recent thorough selection process were recognized and celebrated by being fitted for and dressed in their very own St Jude’s uniforms.
These underprivileged yet promising young students are now looking the part to spend the rest of the year making the most of their free, high-quality education.
In their new threads, the proud students were cheered and hugged as the celebration call of parents rang out loud across the school.
“We are so pleased to welcome a new group of keen young students to St Jude’s. It’s particularly exciting this year as we have now been welcoming young achievers such as these through our gates for 15 years,” school founder Gemma Sisia said. “There really is no better way to start the school year than seeing the faces of these students and their parents light up on Uniform Day.”
These students successfully passed rigorous academic testing and poverty assessment, which we conducted over multiple months, to be honoured with the scholarships. They were chosen from more than 700 eligible youngsters in the Arusha region, for their academic ability, social and leadership qualities and financial disadvantage.
“It’s a fair and thorough process to ensure students and their families, as well as their sponsors, receive the upmost benefit of a St Jude’s education,” Gemma said.
The purpose of the strict entrance testing is to ensure we reach the families who need your support the most.
In 2017, we are proud to be educating more than 1,800 in-need Tanzanian students throughout the past 15 years, with more than 200 having already graduated Form 6.
Students who successfully retain their St Jude’s scholarship throughout their schooling have the opportunity to graduate in Form 6 with a much higher chance of receiving a university education.
We can’t wait to see what this opportunity brings our youngest bright students!
They’ve finished in the academic top 1% in the nation, and now our Grade 7’s are showing their maturity by demonstrating community spirit during their holidays.
Our Grade 7s recently came third from 68 schools in the district and improved in the national rankings. All students finished with marks of either ‘A’ or ‘B’ in their national exams, qualifying St Jude’s as one of the top primary schools in Tanzania.
Primary school headmaster George Stephen was unsurprisingly thrilled with the outcome.
“I would like to congratulate every one of us (within the primary school) who worked to achieve these good results. Your hard work is appreciated,” he said.
“Let’s continue working towards more performances like this.”
More than 30 of these enthusiastic, soon-to-be primary school graduates have busily spent their end of school-year break volunteering for our school community.
Anethi (Annette) is one such inspirational student. She has chosen to give back by helping to prepare the hundreds of meals our kitchen serves each day, as well as sharing her creative skills in the art room.
“I wanted to help so I just said I would (in both areas),” Anethi explained, adding that she knew she could be an asset in the kitchen as she often helps her mother prepare family meals.
“I help in the (school) kitchen by washing utensils, cutting vegetables and helping serve lunch.”
Anethi, along with her friends Nasma, Nasabi, Martha, Elizabeth, Lightness and Brenda, help create Christmas cards and crafty creations for our supporters. Her favourite project has been bottle-top earrings, which Gemma will bring on her tour next year.
“I really like making the earrings and working with my friends on crafts,” she said, singing the praises of Miriam, a St Jude’s Form 6 graduate who is co-ordinating the program.
“She’s good, she helps us lots and it’s fun. I am enjoying it very much.”
Miriam said she has appreciated working with the young students, and enjoyed giving them guidance in both life and their art projects.
“Originally I was hoping to have 10 students (to help with projects), but the 7 I have are better than 10. They are perfect,” Miriam said.
Miriam said students like shy, smiley Anethi were greatly appreciated for their volunteering, and the Grade 7 group as a whole are high-achieving, excellent examples of student leaders.
Donate to St Jude’s and help us remain in the top 1% for many years to come. Go here to find out how.
