From our student body to our campus grounds, progress is flourishing at St Jude’s.

Seven acres of our beautiful Usa River campus is currently becoming more fruitful thanks to our farm project.

“We started this project to produce quality fruit and vegetables for all students,” farm manager Stephen Uswege, who has been helming the operation since its inception about five months ago, said.

“The goal is to produce enough vegetables for all three St Jude’s campuses.”

With an irrigated area for vegetables, designated room for rows of fruit trees, two greenhouses (one for seedlings, the other for tomato and capsicum), plenty of fertile soil and a sunny sky, the project is set for success. 

Secondary students, who will become more involved when it comes time to harvest, have enjoyed valuable lessons about agriculture via the farm (or ‘shamba’ in Swahili).

“I have learned many things from this farm project so far, with one of those being the importance of the greenhouse,” secondary student Cuthbert said.

“The greenhouse (environment) helps nourish the plants and gives the seedlings a green, healthy colour. It helps control the pests that would (otherwise) destroy the plant and take the nutrients, leaving not very good food for us to eat.”

Agriculture is Tanzania’s primary industry, as well as being a ‘National Priority’ degree as determined by the Tanzanian Government. It contributes almost 30% of the country’s GDP, and in 2014 employed 67% of the population*.

Mr Uswege has a background with similar farms and expects our yield to include sukuma wiki (a collared green), cabbage, carrot, onion, chili, watermelon, avocado, mango, cucumber, capsicum, guava, banana, passionfruit and papaya.

The vegetable garden’s drip irrigation includes polythene tunnels to protect soft vegetables, and fertilizer to balance minerals in the soil.

“The drip irrigation will help the plants get water throughout the year,” Smith student Beatrice said.

“It should not be difficult for us to wait until the rains so we can cultivate more crops as we need.”  

The finished product of this tremendous, tasty project will soon fill the bellies of students like Beautrice and Cuthbert!

Help us accomplish big, exciting projects like the shamba by donating to our Area of Greatest Need.

* www.tanzaniainvest.com/agriculture 

The School of St Jude has a powerful ally in the fight against poverty, with Benson Security Systems teaming up to educate more than 1800 of Arusha’s poorest and brightest students.

Arusha-based Benson Security Systems will support the innovation of some of the region’s most passionate budding scientists by sponsoring The School of St Jude 6th Annual Science Fair on April 23.

“BSS focuses in providing state of the art technologies and we believe in supporting innovation, especially here in Tanzania,” Benson Security Systems Managing Director Nadeem Moh’dhussein said.

“I would love to see a student from this Science Fair go on to create the technology that will help our clients in the future.”

The School of St Jude provides a free, high-quality education to more than 1800 of the poorest and brightest students in Arusha. These students are fighting their way out of poverty, with last year’s inaugural Form 6 graduating class finishing in the top 10% in Tanzania.

The annual Science Fair has become a key part of the school’s philosophy of generating future leaders, with a winner each year competing in the national Young Scientists Tanzania competition.

These winners have gone on to great things. Liston, who won the Science Fair in 2013, was awarded a scholarship to the African Leadership Academy in South Africa, where he studied alongside the continent’s top scholars.

Benson Security Systems is a leading provider of innovative security solutions and has worked on many major projects, including the Kilimanjaro International Airport.

The company is sponsoring the TSH 1.6 million in awards on the day, with TSH 250,000 going to the overall winner.

Schools from across the region are invited to attend and present projects that will help the community.

“BSS and the entire Benson Group of Companies has a rich family history here in Arusha and we’re proud to support a school that is doing such positive work in our community,” Mr Moh’dhussein.

The heat is on at our boarding campus, and the students couldn’t be any happier.

Thanks to a $52,000 grant from the Australian High Commission’s Direct Aid Program (DAP) and some additional help from our friends at Freudenberg Group, students are now enjoying environmentally-friendly hot showers at Moivaro campus.

Our campuses are situated in a high altitude area of Tanzania where the weather can get chilly, especially in the winter months. So not only is hot water a pleasure that most of our students rarely experience at home, it’s also vital to stop the common colds and illnesses that pester them during those colder months.

“It’s so good, now we look forward to showers when it is cold,” boarding student Noreen said, adding that she and most of her friends came from homes without running water and would often shower using a bucket.

We’re proud to now have this green, renewable heating system while reducing our carbon dioxide emissions.

“Solar water heaters were the best way for us to make sure our students were happy and healthy during the colder times of the year,” school founder Gemma said.

“Hot water is not so easy to come by here, so we consider ourselves very fortunate to receive this generous grant.”

Last year, St Jude’s launched an appeal to raise funds for solar water heaters to be installed for the 1,400 younger students boarding at our Moivaro Campus.

St Jude’s received the DAP grant and a donation from the Freudenberg Team in Germany, which allowed us to complete the project in January. Local labourers installed the heaters, and our skilled maintenance team will be in on standby to keep them functioning at optimal capacity.

Rotary Club of Brisbane High-Rise also heard the call for environmentally-friendly water heaters and organised a sold out fundraising dinner, to be held in Australia this month. Their aim is to raise enough to supply 30 solar water heaters to our Usa River secondary boarding campus, and their goal is within reach!

Want to help fund solar water heaters, malaria-fighting mosquito nets or homework-helping desks to our students in boarding? Make a donation to Boarding and Transport today.

Students from severely under-resourced government schools now have much-needed desks and chairs thanks to St Jude’s.

Our Secondary Second and Academic Master Revocatus Pharao recently committed to donate 30 second-hand desks and chairs from St Jude’s for a government school in need. 

“There are students (in government schools) who sit on the floor right now, so the President has said to do whatever you can by June, to make sure every student is seated,” Mr Pharao said.

Tanzania’s recently-elected president, John Magufuli, has pushed to see all Tanzanian children in primary and secondary schools attend for free.

Even though free primary education in Tanzania has been in place for over a decade, parents have been expected to pay school contributions that they cannot afford.

The influx of students in already under-resourced government schools has caused a number of issues, such as a lack of furniture for classes.

St Jude’s committed to provide almost 10% of the total need for class furniture in the district.

Mr Pharao said our original plan was to refurbish the 30 sets, but due to a shortened timeframe only a third could be completed before the deadline.

He said St Jude’s will definitely continue donating used desks and chairs, as more students will continue to attend government schools.

St Jude’s Facility Manager Ombeni Zelote also extended his expertise to the government school, by advising on customising and maintaining the desks and chairs to accommodate more students.

Our Beyond St Jude’s team also works with our committed graduates to help alleviate the 47,000 teacher shortage in Tanzania’s overcrowded government schools.

The majority of last year’s Form 6 inaugural graduates volunteered to give back to their communities in thanks for their free education by taking part in the Community Service Year before pursuing university. They taught in 21 government schools, often serving as the sole teacher in their subject of choice, and have used their high-quality education to help more than 10,000 students.

Make your donation dollars go further by supporting St Jude’s. As education is the best way to fight poverty, we support the local community through various projects. 

World Rotaract Week may have finished on Sunday, but our Rotaract and Interact clubs are just getting started!

After being voted in by their peers last month, Rotaract President Julieth and Interact President Lisa are whole-heartedly seizing the chance to lead our clubs to do the best for their community.

“A good leader must put the people’s interest before his or her personal interests, and must never feel that by being a leader they are above other people,” Julieth explained.

“Being a leader means that people trust you, give you a chance and believe you had the potential to lead them towards achieving a certain goal. We will achieve a lot for our community through Rotaract, and I am looking forward to seeing people in the community smile because of what we have done.”

Julieth has thrived at St Jude’s for the past 13 years, but she has not forgotten the difficulties her family has faced as part of living in a developing country.

Her family’s home is like many in Tanzania – with no plumbing and intermittent electricity; water is collected from a nearby tap for a small monthly fee and meals are prepared over a basic charcoal-fuelled stove or outdoors over a wood fire.

She’s committed to solving the problems facing families in Tanzania and sees Rotary as the perfect way to use her education to make people’s lives better.

Julieth and her fellow future Rotarians are already making a difference in their local communities. Under Julieth and Lisa’s flourishing leadership, our 110 eager students have been busy getting plenty of community service projects into gear with the Rotary motto of ‘service above self’ in mind.

The first group of St Jude’s Rotaract and Interact students have already been out to King’ori, where a new water harvesting system is providing clean rain water to students for the first time. Eventually, seven government schools will each receive a system through the project, which is run by NGO Save the Rain. Our responsible Rotaract and Interact students helped out by conducting basic health checks (measuring height, weight, etc) with students.

Our Roteract and Interact clubs’ commitment to community improvement also saw them busy cleaning up the school and surrounding grounds over the last weekend.

“I believe there are people out there who need a helping hand,” Julieth said, explaining why she’s looking forward to seeing more of what Rotaract and Interact can do.

“What Rotary is trying to do is to bring happiness into the world and, through their actions, change lives. I can’t wait to see people’s smiles and how their lives might be changed by a simple act of kindness."

St Jude’s sponsor and Australian Rotaractor Seb Cox has been busy finalising the official co-sponsor paperwork to have approved by Rotary International, as well as helping arrange projects.

We’re look forward to seeing what else they have in store!

An unemployed single mother with no opportunity to escape poverty. That’s what Blandina predicts her life would look like if she did not receive an education.

“I would just be a girl at home or maybe married because girls in Africa, if they don’t get an education, they only end up getting married at a very young age,” the 21-year-old says.

Blandina has witnessed the impact a lack of access to education has had in Tanzania, where the average girl is out of school before her 12th birthday.

According to the United Nations, only 22% of Tanzanian women have attended secondary school and one in 10 is pregnant before her 19th birthday.

Coming from a desperately poor family in the Arusha suburb of Unga Limited, Blandina thanks the supporters of St Jude’s for giving her the life-changing opportunity to finish school with a high-quality education.

"I’m really excited about the education that I got from The School of St Jude and I’m happy to know that I’m going to continue with my education and that one day I can make a very big impact to the Tanzanian community," she says.

Blandina graduated as part of an inaugural Form 6 class that finished in the top 10% in Tanzania, with more than half the students receiving the top mark of distinction.

Of the 61 inaugural graduates 26 were female and there are plenty more to come, with girls making up 57% of the more than 1800 students at St Jude’s.

In a country where women’s education is sorely lacking, St Jude’s is leading the way in the International Women’s Day 2016 theme of “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality”.

Blandina and her fellow 2015 graduates are already showing the ripple effect of a quality education by volunteering through the Beyond St Jude’s Community Service Program.

Blandina is helping at her severely under-resourced government school, where she teaches commerce to classes of more than 70 students.

Together, Blandina and her fellow graduates are helping at 18 government schools and have reached more than 10,000 students.

“I’m interested in helping the people around the place I live because that is where I can give what I have received from The School of St Jude,” Blandina says.

“Schools hardly have enough teachers so if St Jude’s keeps on doing this I think it will bring Tanzania to a better position."

Find out how you can help a girl like Blandina become a future leader in Tanzania by learning about our sponsorship programs.