There are few stories as compelling as Angela Bailey’s. Since day one, she has been involved with every significant ‘first’ for St Jude’s.
As an intrepid 19-year-old, Angela worked seven-day weeks so she could afford to come to Tanzania as St Jude’s very first volunteer teacher.
She was there to walk our first three students into class, on St Jude’s opening day – January 29, 2002.
She was one of the first Board Directors for the East African Fund.
Angela witnessed some of her first students graduate from secondary school during the inaugural Form 6 Graduation Ceremony in 2015.
She returned to St Jude’s that year to launch the groundbreaking Beyond St Jude’s program, mentoring graduates undertaking a Community Service Year and pursuing higher education.
Now, Angela is embarking on another first.
In May 2018, St Jude’s Founder, Gemma Sisia, announced Angela Bailey as Deputy Director of The School of St Jude.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled to take on this challenge and support Gemma as her deputy,” Angela revealed.
“The School has seven managers overseeing everything from academics and maintenance, to finance, human resources and fundraising. Previously, all managers have reported to Gemma. Because I have taken on this role, Gemma will have more time now to focus more specifically on the top-scale, highest priority needs of the School.”
Angela’s journey with The School of St Jude takes its roots almost 20 years ago in an auditorium at St Vincent’s College Potts Point – Gemma’s former high school.
“We had a series of talks from inspirational female speakers to my Year 12 class. Gemma was one of them. She told us about how she was funding the education of a number of students in East Africa and that she was taking a tour group to visit some projects there over the summer. I decided, instead of going to school leavers’ parties or on a family holiday, that I’d go with her to Africa,” Angela shared.
“I remember during our visit to Moshono Village, where Sisia Primary Campus is located, standing next to Gemma and looking out over a maize field. She said to me, ‘Ange, I’m going to build a school here.’”
It took no further persuasion for Angela to choose her next steps. She decided to return to Tanzania and help Gemma build her dream.
Angela’s impact on the School has evolved significantly during the 16 years that have since passed.
Although she left Tanzania in 2005 to pursue further education in Australia, Angela never found work as meaningful or sustaining as her work at St Jude’s.
“I loved being at St Jude’s so much in the early days, knowing all the students and their families personally, that I didn’t think I’d return to work here again after it grew into such a huge organisation. Then, my heart was taken by Gemma’s idea for the Beyond St Jude’s program, and it was something I was determined to be a part of,” Angela said.
“Beyond St Jude’s ensures the sustainability of St Jude’s school values. Our graduates share these values with students they teach during their Community Service Year internships in local government schools. There is no program like this in Tanzania.”
As Deputy Director, Angela will oversee Beyond St Jude’s and Academic management teams, improving and implementing strategies that will secure the School’s sustainability for years to come.
Angela’s dream for the School and Beyond St Jude’s is simple, yet profound.
“I want all our students and graduates to have a well-rounded education that gives them the skills to be leaders in their communities, and to go on and lead happy, successful lives, void of the daily struggle to provide food for their families or a roof over their heads.”
Do you share Angela’s dream? Make a difference today by donating or sponsoring a scholarship for one of our students or graduates.
Is anything sustainable in this impermanent world in which we live? Yes. Growing our hinterland of thinking is the one key element to success in life. I am not talking about material success. I am referring to success as living with contentment and love and laughter and enjoying what we do and who we are. I want St Jude’s to deliver dreamers. Our world needs dreamers. And dreamers are not only the ones who want to break the ties that bind them to their physical reality, but they are the people who can imagine another space, or time, or way of being.
The modern world, so intent on describing everything and measuring it in minuscule terms, I think has gone horribly askew! We need to shift our thinking away from using check boxes and trite statements. We need to shift our gaze to the hearts and minds of those whom we seek to educate. We have to recognise that sustainability, itself, a big, but somewhat non-descript word, must not cloud our awareness. I want our children to understand themselves and become habitual imaginers, able to create a reality out of precious little. It will be in their understanding of themselves and the lives they create for themselves, that we will find the true, sustained, impact of our work here.
Since coming to St Jude’s from South Africa three months ago, I am convinced that our measure of sustainability will be best seen if our children at St Jude’s become avid readers. Readers of novels, fiction! If we can expose small children to make-believe, fantasy and fiction, we give them the opportunity to construct something in their minds out of words on a page. Holding a book, even when my arthritic hands get sore, is still a reminder, especially when the book is wonderful, of the gravitas of a good book. I have just finished reading a wonderful biography of a movie director. I have never seen any of his films, but I feel now that I know him and in fact, feel that I have seen his movies. All of this, from reading his words.
The modern world thinks that sustainability must be measured, but the crucial indicator of success will be visible in those of our students who not only read, but who love to read. Reading for the pure pleasure of it, will be a true test of St Jude’s impact and sustainability. If one has to use the infamous checklist, then it should have one statement: “The children who went through St Jude’s love to read.” Nothing more and nothing less.
If education is to lift our children out of poverty, it means they need to imagine another world. How can they imagine another world, another feeling that they do not know, if they do not build their imagination? How can they build their imagination? By reading! It is so very simple. It sounds a bit like a cliché, but it is most certainly so that readers become leaders. And, any really good leader, is almost certainly going to be an avid reader.
It is something of a litmus test. We have seen this time and time again. Reading deposes despair, nurtures grace and strengthens our souls. I want our kids to value their silent space, even amidst the loud chatter and noise of the market and the spaza shop. I want them to put reading before movies. I want them to seek out books to read. I will live with their reading kindles. But I will be overjoyed if they read books.
I want St Jude’s descendants to feel that warm glow of having a book and a space, even if it is on a cramped bus seat, that is wholly theirs, and into which they can escape.
If our St Jude’s students are avid readers, we will have succeeded in putting into Arusha, a sustainable life-giving force. Somebody once said that we read to know we are not alone. We will not only all be alone and very lonely, but we will rapidly lose our humanity, if we do not hold tight onto the reading thread, fragile though it may be.
Take a look at our book wish list - give today to help us broaden students' imaginations!
