Gemma Sisia is changing lives in Tanzania, with help from donors in Murray Bridge

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The Rotary Club of Murray Bridge has celebrated an evening with Gemma Sisia OAM, raising awareness and continuing funds for the School of St Jude in Tanzania which she founded in 2002.

St Jude is the Patron Saint of hopeless causes, and in the early days of the school, some would say that providing free private school education in Africa was also a hopeless cause.

The Rotary Club of Murray Bridge was Ms Sisia’s last club to visit on a whirlwind tour of Australia, covering the east coast and South Australia.

Ms Sisia grew up with her seven siblings in Armadale, New South Wales and was educated in Australia before relocating to Africa at the age of 22.

Her outstanding contribution to education in Tanzania has been recognised in Australia and Africa.

She has featured in two episodes of Australian Story, Conversations with Richard Fidler on the ABC, and 60 Minutes on Nine.

She lives in Arusha, Tanzania with her husband Richard and four children.

Her parents put a huge emphasis on all the children’s education; she felt that children from poor families should also have access to a good education, hence St Jude’s.

In its earliest stages, her desire to help in Africa arose from media coverage of the famine in Ethiopia.

After seeing images of starving children, she decided that she would work in any capacity to help the people of Africa who needed it the most.

After receiving her Diploma in Education, Ms Sisia volunteered at a girls’ centre in Uganda, teaching maths, science and sewing.

This experience would eventually pave her way to Tanzania and starting the School of St Jude.

She established the school in Arusha with funding from Australia.

It was through this fundraising that she was introduced into Rotary.

Armidale Central Rotary commenced their support of the school through a “buy a brick” campaign, with immense support from the Armidale community.

Many other Rotary clubs have been supportive in the years since, with sponsor support, donations and visits to the school to assist with programs.

The school opened with one volunteer teacher and three students.

Today it provides free education to more than 1800 students from disadvantaged backgrounds at the primary and secondary levels.

On her visit to Murray Bridge, Ms Sisia outlined some of the difficult aspects of building a school in Tanzania: interacting with community leaders, businesses, local workers and adapting to the culture.

“For a foreign, white woman to suddenly begin constructing and operating a school in Tanzania, there were more than a few hurdles I had to navigate,” she said.

“The most important step I took was reassuring parents that we weren’t another charity that was here one minute and gone the next.

“I wasn’t going anywhere and was fully committed to providing their children with the best possible education.”

Rotarians and their guests also heard from John Stanley, an alum of the School of St Jude who started at the school aged eight, one of seven children in his family.

He completed his high school education at the school’s Smith Campus and received a full scholarship to study at the African Leadership University in Mauritius.

John is an active St Jude’s alum who has returned to the school to inspire others to dream big and turn those dreams into action.

Staff at Murray Bridge RSL provided a sumptuous two-course meal – after catering for another event in the afternoon – and Rotarians organised a silent auction to raise more funds for Ms Sisia’s work.

She, John and their team had signed copies of a book about the journey she has taken for all to purchase.

Members of the Rotary Club of Murray Bridge thanked the sponsors of the silent auction and those who attended and participated in spirited bidding for an amazing array of items.

School of St Jude has been blown away by Murray Bridge locals’ donations

Ms Sisia thanked the Rotary Club of Murray Bridge and local donors for their support, which would mean that more than 400 of St Jude’s high school graduates could go to university.

“I’m so grateful for the reception we received in Murray Bridge and to know that there are so many amazing people here that open their hearts to help us continue to increase this impact,” she said.

“We know that educating just one child can lift the whole family from poverty, so this means the school has greater impact.

“We don’t just believe education changes lives, we actually see it happening.”

From humble beginnings, with a lot of hope, the school has grown to include three campuses that house a primary school and two high schools, and boarding houses for high school students to stay at during the term so they can focus on the holistic education they receive at St Jude.

As well as education, students play sport, learn music and art and have a range of extracurricular activities and clubs to choose from.

Ninety-seven cents in every dollar raised goes towards the operational costs of running the school.

Its graduates are working as doctors, engineers, lawyers and teachers and are running their own businesses.

“This year alone we have more than 400 scholars attending 60 different universities internationally, and our alumni are emerging as role models that are not only contributing to their country but are the leaders of the future for Tanzania,” Ms Sisia said.

Want to consider sponsoring a child at St Jude’s?

Visit www.schoolofstjude.org/australia, where you can learn about sole sponsorship, co-sponsorship, shared sponsorship or class sponsorship; or make a valuable donation or contact the Rotary Club of Murray Bridge at www.murraybridgerotary.org.au or on 0417 846 176.