When The School of St Jude was just a twinkle in Gemma Sisia’s eye, it was her local Rotary members who helped fundraise and eventually build our first classrooms.
Rotary’s motto of ‘service above self,’ must have stuck in the brickwork, because in March, St Jude’s students will officially launch Rotary branches of their own.
The Interact and Rotaract clubs of St Jude will be run by secondary students between the ages of 12-18 and 18-30 respectively.Both clubs will be coordinated by St Jude’s sponsor Seb Cox, a 21-year-old education student and Rotaractor from Canberra.
“Gemma has always had the floating idea of starting Rotary clubs here as the organisation has helped the school so much – she just needed a person willing to come over and do it,” Seb said.
Seb gauged student interest in Rotary by holding a special assembly at our secondary campus, designed to introduce students to the organisation’s mission and achievements.
Prominent local Rotarians Revocatus, St Jude’s secondary Second and Academic Master, and Anna Rweyemam, Arusha Mt Meru Rotary club president, gave inspiring presentations during the assembly and motivated over 250 students to vie for the 80 Interact and 60 Rotaract positions available.
Successful applicants were invited to stand for leadership positions within the clubs.
Rotary rules require clubs to carry out two service projects a year: one that helps their school or community and one that promotes international understanding. New clubs must also be sponsored by existing Rotary branches.
Julieth in Form 5 was the only female to stand for the position of Rotaract President – and she won! She was also one of the 10 lucky students invited to attend a meeting of the Usa River Rotary Club, which will co-sponsor the St Jude’s clubs with the Rotary Club of Arusha Mt Meru.
In her stump speech for club president, Julieth discussed partnering with Usa River on rain water harvesting projects as well as her motivation for joining Rotaract. “I wanted to be part of Rotaract because it would be selfish of me not to give back with what I have learned and been given at St Jude,” she said.
"Although I might not be rich enough to feed the hungry population – I believe there are skills I have, there are jobs I can do, there are stories I can share with my community to make it a better place and I believe Rotary will allow me to do this.”
After the elections, club members attended weekend training camps where they looked at Rotary projects from all over the world before honing in on possible service projects using Rotary’s procedure for identifying areas of need within Rotary’s areas of focus.
Presidents of our generous sponsor clubs will meet with President Julieth and her Interact counterpart, Lisa (also the only girl who ran) later this week to officially sign off and launch both clubs.
Stay tuned to learn more about the projects our Interactors and Rotaractors will engage in or talk to your local Rotary club about helping St Jude’s.
An 80-strong audience of our senior primary students began their year with a funky lesson in a different kind of music.
French artists visited St Jude’s to share the art of beatboxing and emceeing, much to the delight of eager St Jude’s students.
The professional beatboxer and an MC, invited from France by the Alliance Française of Arusha (with support from the French Embassy to Tanzania), spent the special afternoon sharing their “universal language” skills with the students, much to everyone’s delight.
“We’ve been to a few local schools with this workshop and it’s been very popular,” Alliance Française Arusha director Alicia Thouy said.
“It’s a fun and rewarding way for students to collaborate and learn something different.”
Grinning and giggling students were obviously impressed with the group bonding exercise, with their confidence built to the point that a few demonstrated their own talents.
The workshop was an ideal chance for St Jude’s to add another dimension to the diverse and thorough education our students experience, as well as connecting with a fellow highly regarded organization in Arusha.
Support our holistic education and help create confident, community-focused leaders by donating today.
Asha is afraid of nothing, how many 10 year olds can say that?
Her favourite subject is science because her teacher, Mr Samwel Jackson, “is so smart funny and nice,” she says. Asha likes learning about animals, especially lions, and how lions like to kill and eat zebras.
Asha’s favourite person in the world is her mum, Nuiya.
Nuiya raises Asha and her cousin, Ramadhani, on the money she makes from washing clothes and sewing jumpers to sell at local shops. St Jude's also assists Asha’s family by providing home packs that include essentials like soap, beans and cooking oil.
Asha and Nuiya have just returned from Mwanza, the second biggest city in Tanzania, where they spent the school holidays with Asha’s grandmother, who taught her how to cook ugali.
Asha is a quick study and in 2015 achieved almost straight A’s across her subjects.
This year Asha has started Standard 3 (Year 3) and is excited to be back at school. “I like St Jude’s and I am very happy to come back because I am coming to read lots of books,” she said.
She is also excited to see her best friend Mary.
Asha and Mary like to play the slide game at lunchtime and are near inseparable.
When Asha grows up she wants to be a “doctor for children” and so does Mary.
In Tanzania there are only 3 doctors per 100,000, people, one of the lowest per capita rates in the world.
If you would like to be part of amazing Asha’s aspirations and correspond with her about the feeding practices of lions, or how to cook ugali, then why not sponsor her today?
Overcoming vision impairment in a developing country is no easy task, especially when you’re trying to focus on your education, but two of our students have done just that.
Primary school student Sebastian and secondary student Selemani are both severely vision impaired due to albinism, but a group of generous Australians are helping them focus on their education.
The Brisbane-based group have worked together to provide specialised equipment for both students, so they can access the curriculum like their normal-sighted peers.
Selemani said he had tried various solutions during his schooling, including a prescription monocular (an optical instrument for use with one eye) and glasses, but without success.
Simply mentioning his new set-up brought a huge smile to his face.
“I have struggled to read the blackboard since I was in Standard 1 (Grade 1). I used to wear spectacles but they didn’t help much, so I still needed to go close to the board,” the soon to be 18-year-old said.
“Now with the iPad, I can see! It has a camera that takes a photo of the blackboard, and I copy it in my iPad. It’s so easy to read, and I can zoom in and out!”
When Brisbane High-Rise Rotarians visited St Jude’s last year, Selemani volunteered to show them around campus. Vision Australia physiotherapist Louise Arvier was amongst them, and she realised how Selemani’s life might be drastically improved with equipment that’s difficult to come by and afford in East Africa.
The Rotarians arranged to provide Selemani, Sebastian, and another St Jude’s student with cerebral palsy, an iPad with specific software each to facilitate their learning.
At almost nine years old Sebastian already suffers from similar difficulties to Selemani, and the equipment is already making a difference.
“Sebastian has been at the school for two years now, and seeing the progress in his performance over the past few months (with his new equipment) is amazing,” St Jude’s Community Relations Officer Charlotte Peyrat-Vaganay said.
Mrs Arvier said two of the iPads were donated, and the Rotarians fund-raised to purchase one specifically for Sebastian, as he needed the latest version to support the up-to-date software.
She and her husband, fellow Brisbane High-Rise Rotarian Dr John Arvier, personally provided the Sony Camera lens’ to attach to the iPads of both students.
“It not only allows them to take pictures of the board but of handouts and anything they find difficult to access,” Mrs Arvier said.
With the addition of iPad cases, keyboards, several styluses and the appropriate Apps through iTunes, donated by the couple, Selemani and Sebastian can both access the curriculum like their sighted peers.
The excitement and cheer Sebastian and Selemani have been radiating makes the joy they feel about the group’s generosity obvious.
Their increased self-confidence, self-esteem and independence is already showing, with Selemani competing in a public speaking competition late last year.
Proud parents rejoiced when they saw their children, dressed in new school uniforms and ready for their free, high-quality education at St Jude’s.
Chosen from the most underprivileged families in the Arusha district, these students already understand the importance of being chosen to receive a free education that ranks in the top 10% in Tanzania.
St Jude’s employees and volunteers rolled up their sleeves to distribute fresh new uniforms to the delighted children, who then showed their parents and lined up for their first official photos.
“We are so pleased to welcome a new group of keen young students to St Jude’s. This is always a very exciting time of the year,” school founder Gemma Sisia said.
“I couldn’t imagine a better way to start the school year than seeing the faces of these students and their parents light up on Uniform Day.”
New student mothers Elizabeth and Ava agreed.
“I’m ecstatic, so excited Jenipha is going to St Jude’s,” Elizabeth said.
“She will have an opportunity at this school to go to secondary level and be such a good help for the family, and it will give her an opportunity to teach others and be a good example of how we need to prioritise education.”
“I am so happy, beyond explanation,” Ava said.
“Colin getting an education will help sustain our life, and that of our community.”
Over the 14 years St Jude’s has provided an education to underprivileged children, our selection process has been refined to ensure those most deserving are enrolled.
“We welcome bright students who have demonstrated aptitude and dedication to their education,” Gemma said.
“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.”
The annual selection process began in August last year with almost 7000 hopeful students applying. These successful new students have been selected for their academic ability, social and leadership qualities and financial disadvantage.
Join us in welcoming our bright new students to the St Jude’s family in 2016.
2015 was one of our most successful years fighting poverty through education!
Not only did our first ever Form 6 graduating class finish in the top 10% in Tanzania, these amazing graduates went on to help thousands of students at under-resourced government schools by volunteering as teachers.
Our amazing supporters helped us with one of the most successful fundraising appeals in our school history and we were able to reach more people than ever through the release of our new school DVD.
Here are just a few of the amazing stories you made possible in 2015.
Our first ever Form 6 graduates finish in top 10%
More than 100 supporters and sponsors joined a crowd of more than TK to celebrate our groundbreaking first Form 6 graduation in May – and, boy, did they have a lot to celebrate.
The class of finished in the top 10% overall, with especially strong performances in chemistry, economics, advanced mathematics and physics. All our students passed and more than half achieved the top mark of “Distinction”.
An amazing achievement by a group of students who come from some of the poorest families in Arusha.
Inaugural Community Service Year helps 1000s of students
Our Form 6 graduates began putting their education to good use immediately after finishing school by enlisting in the inaugural Community Service Year. Of the TK graduates, TK volunteered, with 21 under-resourced government schools around Arusha benefiting from program.
In the first year of the program, our graduates have helped more than TK students while volunteering as teachers.
Our Standard 7s finish in the top 2%
More great Form 6 results could be on their way in the future – if our Standard 7 results are any indication.
From more than 16,000 schools in the country, our 135 final-year primary students placed in the top 2% for national exams, and we could not be more proud.
These students will start high school next year, where they will be given everything they need to ensure the good results continue.
Liston and Daniel at ALA
