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.
People who give are happier - just ask our supporters!
Copious studies have shown generosity leads to a happy, healthy life, so we’re delighted to know our wonderful supporters get as much out of it as we do!
The variety of creative and thoughtful ways people have helped us ‘spread the word’ of St Jude’s while fundraising show you can pursue your passion while doing good.
We’re motivated and inspired by their generosity, and think you will be too, so here are some examples of how easy it can be to support an educated future in Tanzania:
1.What better place to start than the classroom?!
Lovely Luella Green, a student at All Hallows Catholic School in Sydney, recently chose school founder Gemma Sisia as her “Notable” person to focus a project on.
Dressed as Gemma, she made a presentation about her achievements before the audience of 60 families, to raise awareness and money. Good on you Luella, love your work!
Find out how your school can support St Jude’s by going to our At Your School page.
2. A healthy way to grow interest
Student sponsor Denis McKercher has supported St Jude’s for many years through his tomato plant fundraising.
The generous green thumb lovingly tended to about 1600 plants (about 40 varieties of tomatoes!) in his Tasmanian backyard this past year, and has developed a good network of buyers throughout the years.
His hard work in just this past year has raised more than $5000 that will go towards educating Tanzania’s poorest and most promising students.
Thanks for using your passion to please so many Denis!
Get your organisation involved by starting a workplace fundraiser!
3. Spreading the word, a page at a time
Student sponsor Margo Salmon has been busy recently with her annual book fundraiser at Monaghan’s Pharmacy in Warrnambool, Victoria.
While donations for the second-hand and donated books may be as little as a gold coin, Margo has already raised more than $1000 and pages of awareness. Keep up the great work Margo!
Have an idea for an event that will raise money for St Jude’s? Register in online here.
4. Brisbane practice makes perfect
In March, Dr Gordon Mor will journey to Arusha for the fifth consecutive year as a dedicated member of our international medical check team.
Dr Mor and his Brisbane practice team have also, for numerous years, held a special Christmas appeal for St Jude’s. Staff members promoted the most recent one by wearing our Shanga necklaces and graduation polo shirts, and displaying a school signage in the waiting room.
We look forward to thanking Dr Mor in person in March!
See the important work the Medical Check team are doing at St Jude’s in this video.
Don’t have the time to arrange an event? Support St Jude’s by making a donation.
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.
What an amazing way to start the new year.
You helped make 2015 one of our most successful years fighting poverty through education, and we can’t thank you enough.
Last year a record number of supporters helped educate Tanzania’s poorest and brightest students.
Our Sponsorship Appeal was the most ambitious in St Jude’s history with a lofty goal of 150 new sponsorships. Your response and generosity has been overwhelming, with 149 new sponsors changing the lives of our students, plus more than 200 donors helping to support the school in December alone.
Our supporter base in the United States also continued to grow in 2015, and in December made their largest impact ever, with our American Appeal raising more than $US89,000.
“It’s wonderful to start the year with news like this,” St Jude’s founder Gemma Sisia said. “We set some big goals and our supporters responded.”
Your generosity has created excitement among our more than 300 Tanzanian staff members and the international volunteers here in Arusha.
“You can feel the excitement around the campus,” Gemma said. “The kids are always excited, but our staff members and everyone around has a real spring in their step.
“We’ve got big plans in the coming months, with our Form 6s graduating and preparing to spend the year volunteering in their local government schools. This momentum is just what we need to make sure we reach more people than ever in 2016.”
Haven’t watched our Uniform Day video? See how proud parents respond to seeing their children in St Jude’s uniforms for the first time.
Frank Burton was a man who understood value.
When it came time for the Sydney-based chartered accountant to divvy up his estate, he saw the opportunity to make his contribution to education go further with The School of St Jude.
“Frank was someone who loved knowledge, and who felt that education was important, which we think is why he decided to leave a large part of his estate to The School of St Jude,” his sister Suzan explained.
“As an accountant, with a university degree himself, Frank loved comparing different investments, and he knew that investment in education is one of the best investments of all. He would have been particularly pleased to know that his donation was going to support students going to university.”
The trivia buff, AFL fanatic and all-round generous man passed away in July after an unexpected and sudden illness, but his substantial bequests to three organisations will ensure many others will continue to be inspired by and benefit from those pursuits he valued.
“Thanks to him, multiple children will get an outstanding education at The School of St Jude in Tanzania, St Vincent de Paul will be able to help more people who are homeless and more women fleeing domestic violence… he also left something to the (Sydney) Swans, to hopefully help win many more premierships,” Suzan shared with attendees at Frank’s funeral, and later said the family knew of at least one of those people who had been inspired by his generosity and donated to St Jude’s since then.
“We think he decided to include the school in his will because he liked the idea of students being able to improve their lives, and those of their families, through education.”
St Jude’s founder, Gemma Sisia, said she was deeply saddened by news of Frank’s death but touched by his considerate actions.
“Frank’s generosity means so much to our school, and we look forward to celebrating the opportunities students will have available from these scholarships with his devoted family,” she said.
Frank’s mother Anne and his sisters Suzan and Fiona are also patrons of the school, so our community here in Arusha has been very fortunate to have the support of such a giving family. His lasting legacy remains deep in their hearts and in the many he has helped with his decisions.
Join the Burtons and St Jude’s in fighting poverty through education. Find out more by downloading our Wills and Bequests Information pack, or by making a donation.
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?
